PMC Bank scam: Wadhawan father-son duo get judicial custody

The ED case of money laundering was based on the FIR registered by the EOW.

HDIL promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang, arrested in connection with the Rs 4,355-crore PMC Bank scam, were remanded to judicial custody on Thursday by a special court here. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) produced Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd’s (HDIL) chairman and managing director Rakesh and his son before special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court judge P Rajvaidya, after their remand ended.

The court remanded the duo in judicial custody after the central agency did not seek their further custody. The Wadhawans were arrested last month by Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

The EOW had registered a case against them and top officials of the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank earlier this month for allegedly causing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank. It alleged that the bank management, in cahoots with the Wadhawans, concealed from the banking regulators’ scrutiny huge loan defaults by the HDIL group firms.

The bank officials replaced 44 loan accounts of the HDIL with 21,049 fictitious accounts to camouflage huge loan defaults by the real estate group, it said. The ED case of money laundering was based on the FIR registered by the EOW. Besides the father-son duo, police have arrested three former top officials of the bank in connection with the scam.