According to various media reports, Varsha Raut, the wife of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut will not be attending the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons today that was issued to her in the PMC Bank Scam worth over Rs. 4,000 crores. Reportedly, she has sought extension till the 5th of January from the agency.
Maharashtra: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's wife Varsha will not appear before Enforcement Directorate (ED) today in PMC Bank scam case. She has sought time from the agency till January 5.
— ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2020
As per reports, Varsha Raut is being summoned for 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.
This is, in fact, the third summons that would be missed by Varsha Raut. Earlier, two summons have been issued to Varsha Raut by ED to appear before the agency on December 11 and December 22 and for both summons, the wife of Sanjay Raut had not shown up.
What is the PMC Bank scam in which Shiv Sena leader’s wife is now embroiled?
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.
