His lawyer also claims that Wariyam Singh was a titular chairman, all decisions were taken by former Managing Director Joy Thomas
The former chairman of PMC Bank, who was arrested Saturday after absconding for days, was produced before the Killa Court on Sunday. It granted EOW his custody till October 9 for further investigation. However, Wariyam Singh's lawyer told the court, that his client was on his way to surrender before the investigating agency. He claimed he had written a letter in advance to the agency about the same, but it was wrongly portrayed that he was arrested. His lawyer also claims that Singh was a titular chairman, all decisions were taken by former Managing Director Joy Thomas.
According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Singh played an important role in the fraud, as he was not only the PMC Bank chairman but also an HDIL executive director at the same time. "His confrontation with the accused is very crucial to understand the entire fraud. How the money was transferred and went unnoticed by the concerned authorities," said an officer.
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'Wrongly shown as arrested'
Arguing for Singh, advocate Vibhav Krishna informed the court, "My client has surrendered before the investigating agency. He also informed them via a letter about the same but he was wrongly shown as arrested. The summons issued on October 1 by EOW has no mention of dates as to when he has to appear before the agency."
Advocate Krishna further told the court, "My client has nothing to do with the fraud as his role was only a title role. All the decisions were taken by Joy Thomas. My client's role was just to sign the documents, now all of them are in the possession of the RBI-appointed administrator and EOW. Back then, when my client was a chairman, then also he never had any access to any documents. My client says 'I am no banker, I got my position because I was elected.'"
"We have opposed the remand on the basis that the documents on which the investigation is being carried out, are available with the police and the administrator, the responsibility of making the documents, under the co-operative societies act, lies with the executive. The MD has already been arrested, therefore there is no need for the custody of Wariyam Singh. He is co-operating with the investigation," advocate Krishna added.
This was the fourth arrest by the EOW in the PMC Bank fraud case. The agency has arrested Rakesh and Sarang Wadhavan, directors of HDIL, and the former MD of PMC Bank Joy Thomas. All the accused are in custody of EOW till October 9.
'Accused will face each other'
"We have got the custody of the fourth accused. We will make all of them face each other as these are the key players. Three (Sarang, Rakesh Wadhavan and Thomas) were brought face to face after being questioned individually. There are a lot of contradictory statements which we are verifying," said an EOW officer. The Enforcement Directorate has started investigating the money laundering case and raided the offices and residences of PMC and HDIL officials. The ED will take custody of the arrested accused after EOW.
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