Third Death In 2 Days! Now A Mumbai Doctor With Rs 1 Cr Deposit In PMC Bank Commits Suicide

A 39-year-old doctor from Mumbai who was an account holder in the scam-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) was found dead in her house in what appears to be a case of suicide.

Dr. Nivedita Bijlani allegedly ended her life on Monday evening by consuming an overdose of sleeping pills at her residence in suburban Versova.

According to the police, she had a deposit of over Rs 1 crore in her PMC bank account.

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While police said that Bijlani was suffering from depression, they are still investigating if the death was related to the bank, which has been put under severe restrictions by the RBI recently.

Earlier, another depositor, identified as Sanjay Gulati had died on Monday of a heart attack, hours after attending a protest by distressed customers of the bank outside a Mumbai court.

According to his family, Gulati who lost his job as an engineer recently after the Jet Airways shutdown had nearly Rs 90 lakhs in PMC Bank in four accounts of his family.

According to reports, Gulati, a resident of suburban Oshiwara had been under stress because of his deposit being stuck.

On Tuesday, another PMC Bank account holder, identified as Fattomal Punjabi, had died. His family alleged that Punjabi died of a cardiac arrest on Tuesday due to stress. He too had taken part in protests held by depositors demanding the return of their money.

Meanwhile, the RBI has further hiked the withdrawal cap from Rs 1,000 to Rs 40,000, saying that it will give relief to 77 percent of depositors.

This comes as thousands of PMC account holders continue to protest across Mumbai demanding the return of their deposits in the scam-hit bank.

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Last month the RBI had imposed restrictions on the bank for six months and ordered it not to give or renew any loans and advances, make investments or incur any liability, including borrowing funds and accepting fresh deposits.

The troubles began after RBI found massive irregularities in the transactions in the PMC Bank. A probe revealed that the top executives of PMC had created thousands of fictitious accounts to hide the scam worth Rs 4335 crore.

Real estate firm HDIL allegedly accounted for 70 per cent of the bank's Rs 9,000 crore advances. According to the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing, HDIL's loans turned Non-Performing Assets, but the bank management hid this from the RBI's scrutiny.