Mumbai police's EOW arrests suspended PMC Bank MD Joy Thomas

A TV report said EOW was looking for Joy Thomas from the last four days.

Thomas was summoned to the EOW office at the city police headquarters and arrested after questioning, a police official told PTI.

Thomas' arrest comes after HDIL chairman and managing director Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang were on Friday sent to police custody till 9 October in the PMC Bank scam.

The Wadhawan father-son duo were arrested by the special investigation team (SIT) of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on Thursday and produced before a local court on Friday.

EOW had registered an FIR on Monday against senior officials of HDIL and the PMC Bank for allegedly causing losses to the tune of ₹4,355.43 crore to the bank.

Property of ₹3,500 crore belonging to the company was seized by the EOW during the investigation, he said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also initiated investigation by registering a case of money laundering, an official told PTI.

Thomas recently said the bank’s exposure to bankrupt HDIL is over ₹6,500 crore—four times the regulatory cap, or 73% of its entire assets of ₹8,880 crore.

On September 23, the RBI had put restrictions on the cooperative lender after it had found out financial irregularities, and under-reporting of loans given to real estate developer HDIL.

HDIL is in bankruptcy court after failing to repay its debt. The National Company Law Tribunal had admitted insolvency proceedings against HDIL following a plea filed by Bank of India under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.