Rs 10.5 crore cash missing from PMC records: Bank's internal investigation team

MUMBAI: PMC Bank's internal investigation team has made a startling revelation: A total of Rs 10.5 crore cash is missing from the bank's records. The team has found multiple cheques issued by HDIL and its related entities which were never deposited with the bank and yet cash was handed over to them.
While the cheques amount to over Rs 10 crore, there is no accounting for another Rs 50-55 lakh.That apart, Rs 4,355 crore, the loan fraud amount that the bank's officials had quoted earlier, has now crossed Rs 6,500 crore.


The bank learned of the missing Rs 10.5 crore cash only while the internal inquiry into the bank's financial transactions was being conducted on the orders of an RBI-appointed administrator.
It is learned that HDIL and group companies wanted the cash and sent cheques over the past two years to the bank's former managing director Joy Thomas. While Thomas provided them with cash, he did not deposit these cheques with the bank. The cheques' entry is not reflected in the bank's record book. Thomas is suspected to have pocketed Rs 50 lakh to Rs 55 lakh.
Thomas, along with the loan committee members, had sanctioned loans to HDIL and its directors Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan. All three have been arrested. "The loan fraud amount has jumped to more than Rs 6,500 crore (from Rs 4,355 crore)," said an official.
The EOW may add the section for misappropriation of funds in the FIR.
Meanwhile, the bank's arrested former director Surjit Singh Arora was produced before the Esplanade Court and remanded in police custody till October 22.