PMC Bank case: Chargesheet against five directors, two valuers

MUMBAI: The city economic offences wing (EOW) on Friday filed a 2,000-page chargesheet in the Esplanade court against five directors and two valuers of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank. The two valuers are accused of giving backdated reports with inflated valuation of properties mortgaged with the bank. This is the third chargesheet in the case.
Those chargesheeted on Friday include five directors, Jasbir Banwait, Balbir Singh Kochar, Surjit Singh Narang, Omprakash Uppal, Brijbhushan Handa and two valuers, Vishwanath Prabhu and Shripad Jere.Four of the accused are bedridden and, hence, could not appear in court. Earlier, a police team led by inspector Kishore Parab had arrested 12 accused and registered offences against them.
On February 5, police had filed the second chargesheet that ran into 12,000 pages in the Rs 4,700-crore bank loan fraud case against BJP MLA Sardar Tara Singh's son, Rajneet Singh, and six others. In December last year, the police had filed their first 32,000-page chargesheet against five accused in this case.
HDIL group's managing directors, Rakesh Wadhawan and his son, Sarang, are accused of fraudulently availing loans of more than Rs 6,700 crore and defaulting on them. They were assisted by the bank's ex-chairman, Waryam Singh, suspended managing director Joy Thomas and bank director, Surjit Singh Arora. All the accused are currently in jail.
Police sources said the accused in the PMC Bank loan fraud case hatched a criminal conspiracy to conceal the material facts of bad loans to HDIL and to create a favourable environment within the bank for its group companies. The accused misappropriated bank funds for their personal gain (acquisition of properties within the country and abroad) and caused wrongful losses to the bank, sources added.