‘Blind Bhakts, you are headed for the abyss,’ says PMC Bank depositor and Modi supporter

Account holders of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) are venting out their anger and many have been reduced to tears as more of the bank’s irregularities come to light. Many of them are holding the Narendra Modi government at the Centre as responsible for the mess plaguing the banking sector. Here one Modi supporter can be seen accusing Modi of repeatedly making the lives of common people difficult which is an obvious reference to the Prime Minister’s disastrous Demonetisation and GST moves.

“I work in the finance sector. Every year, there is auditing of bank accounts. What was the RBI doing? I had planned to buy a home for my family after meticulously saving for ten long years. Now, all that money is stuck,” he tells a television reporter.

He rambles on, “Mr Modi, who are you really working for? You are repeatedly making the lives of common people difficult. I was a Modi supporter. You can check my Facebook account. And I am telling you, all you blind Modi supporters (Andh Bhakts), you are all headed for the abyss.”

More than 21,000 fictitious accounts were created by PMC Bank to hide the loans it disbursed to Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) and its group entities, according to a police complaint filed with Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The bank’s management is accused of causing a loss of at least Rs 4355 crore to one of the country’s largest co-operative banks.

The PMC case has sparked renewed concerns about the health of India’s banking sector, which has been rocked by an over-$2-billion Dollar fraud at Punjab and National Bank, the near-collapse of DHFL, mounting NPAs in public sector banks and a liquidity squeeze that has hit the overall lending business.

The RBI last week moved to take charge of PMC, one of the country’s top five co-operative lenders with more than 900,000 depositors and ₹11620 crores in deposits. Depositors have been barred from withdrawing over ₹10,000 from their accounts over the next six months.