Storm after Maharashtra Governor appears in photo with ex-director of PMC Bank

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, November 19

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari is caught in the middle of a controversy after being photographed with former Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank director Rajneet Singh even while he was declared an absconder by the Mumbai Police.

The picture, which has gone viral on social media, shows Rajneet Singh, his father and former Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Asssembly Sardar Tara Singh, as well as some others, greeting Koshiyari at Raj Bhavan on the occasion of Diwali. Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing, which is probing the PMC Bank scam, had then declared that Rajneet Singh and other directors were untraceable.

Depositors of the PMC Bank have taken to social media accusing the police of going soft on Singh while Maharashtra is under President’s Rule.

With the Governor’s office coming under fire, Raj Bhavan put out a statement on Tuesday denying that it was aware of Rajneet Singh’s identity when he went to wish Koshiyari on the eve of Diwali.

“Sardar Tara Singh had come to greet the Governor and since he was a former MLA he was allowed in. There were some people accompanying him but we didn’t know that one of them was his son Rajneet,” the governor’s spokesman told this reporter.

Rajneet was arrested only on Saturday last, several weeks after he posted pictures of himself with the Governor on social media. According to EOW officials, Rajneet was on PMC Bank’s recovery committee and regularly dealt with the promoters of HDIL who are accused of siphoning off more than Rs 6,500 crore from the bank.