Absconding PMC Bank director traced to Amritsar

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, November 9

Daljit Singh Bal, an absconding director of the fraud-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, has been located in Amritsar in Punjab.

Police sources said Bal obtained anticipatory bail from a court in Amritsar on learning that a team from the EOW was on his way to nab him from the holy town. The local court granted him bail after Bal gave an undertaking that he would surrender before the Mumbai police in a fortnight’s time, according to sources here.

The EOW is still trying to locate another director, Gurnam Singh Hoti, who too is believed to be holed up in Punjab. While Bal was a director on the loans committee of the troubled bank, Hoti who was a trustee on board of several Sikh institutions in Mumbai in addition to being a director in the PMC Bank helped mobilize deposits for the financial institution, according to police.

Meanwhile, the EOW wants one of the bank’s directors extradited from Canada.

According to police officials here, Dr Parmeet Sodhi who was on the loans committee and the loan recovery committee of PMC Bank has been in Canada since a short while before the fraud came to light. “She has not returned to India fearing arrest and has moved the court for pre-arrest bail,” a police source said.

The EOW has opposed Dr Sodhi’s anticipatory bail plea before a magistrate’s court on the grounds that she was very much part of the PMC Bank’s operations and was responsible for the fraud. In its application before the magistrate here earlier this week, the EOW said Dr Sodhi was responsible for sanctioning loans and was one of the directors responsible for the bank’s operations.

Dr Sodhi was to return to India late last month, but filed an anticipatory bail application fearing arrest since a look-out notice has been issued against her.

The FIRs filed in connection with the PMC Bank case have mentioned the names of all the 14 directors who were on the board at the time of the collapse.