Wife of motormouth Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, Varsha Raut, has been summoned by Enforcement Directorate on the 29th of December in connection with the PMC Bank scam.
#ED summons #SanjaRaut‘s wife, Varsha in connection with #PMC Bank Scam on December 29.
— TOI Mumbai (@TOIMumbai) December 27, 2020
As per reports, Varsha Raut has been summoned over a Rs. 50 lakh transaction with the wife of another accused, Pravin Raut. It is believed to be the same transaction where she allegedly took a loan to buy a property.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya said that Sanjay Raut should explain whether any financial transaction has occurred on his family’s part. Ram Kadam also said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance should not attach politics to investigative agencies. He said, “It’s the double standards of the Sena for when the state acts in Maharashtra it’s transparency and when Central agencies act it’s an act of revenge.”
What is the PMC Bank scam?
The Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank is one of the largest cooperative banks, which was put under scrutiny by the Reserve Bank for fraud and misreporting of bad loans. Later, the bank had admitted that one large account, HDIL was the main reason for the current crisis.
Following this, the Mumbai Police’s EOW had arrested HDIL directors Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan in connection with a fraud of over Rs 4,355 crores. According to the reports, PMC Bank officials gave loans to HDIL between the year 2008 and August 2019 despite the Wadhwans defaulting on previous loans.
Former MD of PMC bank, Joy Thomas aka Junaid Khan was also arrested by a special investigation team (SIT) of the EOW of Mumbai Police on the 4th of October, 2019. He had been absconding until then. The EOW had filed an FIR on September 30 last year against HDIL and PMC Bank officials in the PMC bank fraud case.
Later, it was revealed that Joy Thomas, former MD of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank had converted to Islam, married his assistant at the bank as per Islamic rituals in 2012, changed his name to Junaid Khan and owned 10 properties in Pune with his second wife allegedly as part of the Rs 4,355 crore scam.
The Enforcement Directorate had registered a case of money laundering and initiated their own investigation into the scam. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel was also accused of having links with the Wadhwans.
