PMC depositors continue protest seeking payback

MUMBAI: Depositors of the PMC Bank on Wednesday protested in the financial capital, seeking an immediate payback of their dues from the troubled cooperative.

The protest, which came a day after a similar agitation, also exposed cracks within the depositors, where two groups of leaders seem to have emerged.

The Wednesday's protest at the Azad Maidan, the designated protest ground in the financial capital saw the presence of Congress leader and the party's spokesperson Charan Singh Sapra. Depositors assembled at a specially created pandal in the ground from the morning itself, but the agitation fizzled out with police officials thwarting threats of a march to BJP office in the afternoon. Three of the protesting members were detained by the police and taken away.

"We have decided to go to the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police to seek officials and will continue with the protest," Gurjyot Singh Keer, one of the detained on Wednesday, said. He added Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam is helping the depositors with the initiative at EOW, which is presently investigating the case of cheating. The EOW has arrested five, including three top officials of PMC and the promoters of realty group HDIL, and pegged the scam at Rs 4,355 crore. PMC officials are alleged to have colluded with the Wadhawans, the promoters of HDIL, to keep writing loans for the realty developer or some dummy fronts floated by it over the last nine years.