PMC director's pre-arrest bail opposed by EOW
The probe agency also said that six depositors had died because their money was stuck with the bank.
Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police Friday opposed the anticipatory bail application (ABA) filed by PMC bank director, Dr Parmeet Sodhi. The EOW claimed that she worked with different departments of PMC, including the ones dealing with loan disbursement and recovery, and could not claim that she had no knowledge about the scam. The probe agency also said that six depositors had died because their money was stuck with the bank.
Ms Sodhi had claimed that she was merely a director at PMC and had no knowledge of operational development or access to any of the bank’s records.
However, the EOW in its reply said that Ms Sodhi had been a director since 2005 and had served as a member of the loan committee from 2006 to 2015 and as a member of the recovery committee from 2015 to 2019 and hence, could not claim that she had no knowledge about the scam.
According to the EOW, it was a case of deep-rooted conspiracy involving huge loss of public funds and siphoning of amounts. The agency also stated that unfortunately over the last few years, the country had been observing an alarming rise in white-collar crime, which had affected the economic fibre of the country. “Economic offences nowadays have become a serious threat affecting the development of the country as a whole,” the EOW stated.
The probe agency stated that it needed custodial interrogation of the applicant to reach a logical conclusion, and the deep-rooted conspiracy could not be untangled without custody.
According to the EOW, there was a huge public outcry and disturbance among the depositors, and six persons had lost their lives due to loss of money, the public had taken to the streets to agitate, and in these circumstances, the applicant’s personal safety was at risk.