PMC Bank scam: 3 accused sent in judicial remand till October 23

MUMBAI: A court here on Wednesdayremanded two top HDIL officials and Punjab and MaharashtraCooperative (PMC) Bank's former chairman in judicial custodyin connection with the multi-crore scam at the bank. Outside the court, several depositors protested demanding that their money be returned.The three accused - Housing Development InfrastructureLtd's (HDIL) chairman and managing director Rakesh Wadhawan, his son Sarang Wadhawan and PMC Bank's former chairman Waryam Singh - were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate S G Shaikh as their custody ended on Wednesday. The magistrate remanded them in judicial custody tillOctober 23.The Wadhawans were arrested on October 3, while Singhwas held on October 5 for their alleged involvement in the Rs4,355 crore scam at the PMC Bank.The EOW earlier this month registered a case against the Wadhawans and top officials of PMC Bank for allegedlycausing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.After the scam was unearthed at the bank, which has deposits of over Rs 11,000 crore, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last month appointed an administrator over it, and capped withdrawals at Rs 1,000.On Monday evening, the withdrawal cap was hiked to Rs40,000.Besides these three accused, the EOW also arrested thebank's former managing director Joy Thomas, whose policecustody will expire on October 17.The EOW earlier told the court that bank officials replaced 44 loan accounts of HDIL with 21,049 fictitiousaccounts, to camouflage huge loan defaults by the realestate group which landed the bank in the current crisis.