HDIL, PMC top officials’ police custody extended in fraud case

MUMBAI: A local court in Mumbai on Monday extended the police custody of the Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) directors and Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank Ltd’s former chairman till Wednesday.

HDIL’S Rakesh Wadhwan and Sarang Wadhwan and PMC Banks’ Waryam Singh have been arrested in connection with the ₹4,355 crore Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank fraud case.

The order by the 47th magistrate court came after Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) informed the court that new details have emerged during the investigations.

Wadhawan’s lawyer did not oppose the extension of custody but submitted that EOW has to show some development of the extended remand period.

“The list of all the properties has already been given to EOW, so the question of identification of the properties does not arise. The worth of the properties which is already in charge of PMC is worth more than the exposure to the bank. We have already submitted the list of the same,” the lawyer argued.

In the future, EOW should not get a chance of arguing that it didn’t get enough remand, the lawyer reasoned.

The additional chief magistrate SG Shaikh asked the EOW official what the police had done in the last 12 days of their custody. The officer responded by saying t hat new details are emerging every day.

“Now, we know that Thomas has nine properties in Pune. We have to investigate that too,” senior EOW inspector Kishore Parab said.

Parab was referring to Joy Thomas, the suspended managi ng di r e c t or of PMC Bank. Thomas is already in police custody up to October 17.

Shaikh then remanded the three into police custody up to Wednesday.