PMC Bank Scam Claims Three in Mumbai

The Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank scam claimed yet another life on October 14 as a 39-year old doctor who had an account with the bank allegedly killed herself at her Versova residence.

This is the third death reported in the past twodays related to the PMC Bank scam and subsequent cap on withdrawals for allaccount holders.

According to the report, Dr. Nivedita Bijlani had deposits worth more than Rs. 1crore with the scam-hit bank. Anxious, she took an overdose of sleeping pills which killed her.

According to a report of News18, although the bankscam might have triggered her to take this step, police said that she was a patientchronic depression and had tried to commit suicide earlier as well. Since shehas left no suicide note, police are investigating further to find out whatmight have prompted her to take such a step.

On the other hand, two account holders of PMC havealso lost their lives of cardiac arrest this week by the stress-induced bytheir ability to withdraw their savings from the PMC Bank.

Fattomal Punjabi, who passed away on October 15, hadan account with PMC's Mulund branch, while Sanjay Gulati, who died a dayearlier, had an account with the Oshiwara branch. Both had taken part in theaccount holders' protests that were held in the past few days.

The Reserve Bank of India had put the bank underrestrictions after finding out that they were guilty of a Rs 4,355 crore scam.Following that, withdrawals were limited to Rs 40,000 for the next six-months,causing panic among depositors.