Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut's wife, Varsha, to join investigation in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank scam case.
She has been asked to appear before the agency on December 29, a senior ED officer confirmed to The Free Press Journal on Sunday. Under the scanner of the agency are alleged transactions of Varsha Raut with the wife of an accused linked with the scam. "There are several transactions. The total amount is yet to be ascertained," said a high ranking officer privy to the investigation.
ED had initiated investigation under the Prevention of Money laundering ( PMLA) on 03.10.2019 against Housing Development Infrastructures Ltd. (HDIL), it's directors Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and his son Sarang Wadhawan, PMC Bank’s former managing director Joy Thomas and ex-chairperson Waryam Singh and others on the basis of FIR dated 30.09.2019 registered by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police under sections 409, 420,465,466,471 read with 120B of Indian Penal Code for causing wrongful loss to PMC Bank and corresponding gain to themselves.
The ED alleged that the Wadhawans, along with PMC Bank’s former managing director Joy Thomas and ex-chairperson Waryam Singh, illegally availed loans from PMC Bank and cheated the bank and its depositors.
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It can be noted that over Rs 11,000 crore in depositor money has been stuck after the RBI decided to put PMC Bank under instructions in September last year, and appointed an administrator on it after discovering mismanagement. The bank has been found to have given over Rs 6,700 crore loans to a single company - realty player HDIL - through allegedly fraudulent means and also hid the stress from the Reserve Bank of India by creating separate books of accounts.
Initially, the RBI had allowed depositors to withdraw Rs 1,000 which was later raised to Rs 1 lakh per account to mitigate their difficulties. PMC Bank depositors have spent the last year holding protests, meeting politicians, writing to various authorities in an effort to get their hard-earned money back.
