A section of the PMC Bank depositors as well as UCB leaders are unhappy with the way EoW is taking action against everyone except RBI officials who were entrusted with the job of inspecting the PMC Bank accounts year after year.
It bears recall that the EOW had arrested two statutory auditors, Jayesh Sanghani and Ketan Lakdawala, in connection with the scam. They are suspected to have played a key role in covering up irregularities in the bank.
Top three officials including PMC Bank Chairman and MD as well as two promoters of HDIL — Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan are already in police custody.
Some of the top NAFCUB office bearers, on condition of anonymity, said RBI is no less guilty of dereliction of its responsibility. If CAs and auditors can be held responsible why not those in the RBI overseeing the case for years.
“It has been for the last 6 years that financial hanky panky in the PMC Bank had been going on; how is it possible that RBI did not smell it”, they wondered.
UCB leaders are, however, not very forthcoming on the issue as they fear reprisal from the regulator. One of them said” Do you know that every fourth Friday of the month we send figures of our accounts to the RBI”?
Another leader added that besides the monthly figures and annual inspection, RBI can inspect an UCB at its own will any time 24×7. They wondered how the main agency responsible for regulating and inspecting UCBs has gone scot-free so far.
It bears recall that the news of RBI imposing restrictions on a supposedly healthy UCB- Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank had shaken the foundations of the urban cooperative banking sector.
While co-operative experts stood bewildered at the development, helpless depositors ran to the bank to claim their money. It was a sight and a situation of complete mayhem at branches of the PMC Bank which continues till date.
More than 51 thousand depositors connected with the Maharashtra based Multi State Scheduled Bank are running from pillar to post for getting back their deposits.
The UCB is said to have suffered a loss of Rs 4355 crore. Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) group owners-the duo of father and son the two Wadhawans have been held responsible for the mess in the UCB.
RBI sources say PMC is the 24th cooperative bank the apex bank has taken under its control in this year. Up to 2018, March there were 98,163 cooperative banks in the country. Out of these, 96 612 were rural cooperative banks, and 1,551 urban cooperative banks.