Depositor of scam-hit PMC Bank ends life, another dies of heart attack

Agencies
October 16, 2019

Mumbai, Oct 16: A depositor of scam-hit PMC Bank allegedly committed suicide here, while another died of a heart attack a few hours after taking part in a protest by bank customers seeking their money back.

Dr Nivedita Bijlani (39), who allegedly ended life on Monday evening, and Sanjay Gulati (51) who died of a heart attack on the same day, had deposits of over Rs 90 lakh each with the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank.

The bank has been put under restrictions by the RBI following the discovery of a Rs 4,355 crore scam. Deposit withdrawals have been capped at Rs 40,000 over a six-month period, causing panic and distress among depositors.

Bijlani, a post-graduate in medicine, allegedly ended her life by taking overdose of sleeping pills at her residence in suburban Versova late Monday evening, police said, adding that she had deposits of over Rs 1 crore with the bank.

However, the police also said that Bijlani, who had remarried recently, suffered from chronic depression, and had also tried to end her life earlier when she was in the US.

No suicide note has been found, and further investigations are on, officials said.

Sanjay Gulati had lost his job with Jet Airways after the airline was grounded in April following bankruptcy.

He has a specially-abled son whose treatment requires over Rs 25,000 a month, and they were struggling to pay his tuition fees, family members said.

Accompanied by his 80-year-old father, Sanjay participated in the depositors’ protest in south Mumbai on Monday morning. Later, while having a late lunch at his house in suburban Oshiwara, he collapsed, his family said.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital which declared him dead. “He had lost his job and was extremely stressed for the last few days after the bank crisis. He feared we will not get any of our money back,” wife Bindu Gulati told reporters.

Sanjay’s father said they had a deposit of over Rs 90 lakh with the bank.

“Many retired people have their accounts there, many are struggling. How do you run the house? People have deposits ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 2 crore stuck at PMC Bank. One of my friends was to undergo operation,” a senior citizen participating in a candlelight march outside Gulati’s home said on Tuesday evening.

On Monday evening -- the same day Gulati and Bijlani died -- the withdrawal cap was hiked from Rs 1,000 to Rs 40,000, with the RBI saying it will give relief to 77 per cent of depositors.

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.

Meanwhile, ruling Shiv Sena’s Members of Parliament Rahul Shewale, Gajanan Kirtikar, Arvind Sawant and Anil Desai called on RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, and requested the RBI to merge PMC Bank with a state-run lender like Bank of Baroda or Punjab National Bank, or with a private sector one like ICICI Bank or HDFC Bank.

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News Network
March 3,2020

New Delhi, Mar 3: Delhi's Tihar Prison authorities had made all necessary preparations for the hanging of four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape-and-murder case which was scheduled for Tuesday, officials said Monday.

However, on Monday evening, a city court deferred the hanging till further orders.

Postponing the execution, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana said the hanging cannot be carried out pending disposal of Pawan Gupta's mercy plea before the President, observing any condemned convict must not meet his "Creator" with grievance against courts for not acting fairly on the opportunity to exhaust legal remedies.

"We had made all the necessary arrangements for the execution of the four convicts which was scheduled for Tuesday at 6 AM. Now, the execution has been postponed and we are waiting for the further order by the court," a senior jail official said.

The hanging of the four men -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan -- who are lodged in Tihar jail, was fixed for March 3 in Tihar jail on a court order.

"We had checked the ropes. Hangman was called and dummy executions were carried out," another senior jail official said.

Barring Pawan, the other three had in the previous weeks moved curative petitions and mercy pleas which were all dismissed.

The first date of execution -- January 22 -- fixed on January 7 was postponed by the court to February 1. But on January 31, the court indefinitely postponed the hanging. On February 17, the court again issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 AM.

The court in its orders observed that the four convicts cannot be hanged since a mercy plea of one or the other convict was pending.

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot is the richest minister in the AAP government, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday.

In a statement, the NGO said, Delhi Election Watch and ADR have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all the seven-party leaders including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

According to the statement, the minister with the lowest declared total assets is Gopal Rai with assets worth Rs 90.01 lakh.

"The minister with the highest declared total assets is Kailash Gahlot from Najafgarh constituency with assets worth Rs 46.07 crore," it stated.

The report by ADR comes on the day Kejriwal and his six ministers took charge after the formation of the new AAP government.

Chief Minister Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues took charge of their respective offices on Monday and asserted that they would work to fulfil the promises made in the "guarantee card", released during the poll campaign, including reduction in pollution and expansion of metro network.

Members of his Cabinet are -- Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot.

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News Network
April 9,2020

Patna, Apr 9: In a horrifying incident, a migrant woman was sexually abused in a Gaya hospital where she was kept in an isolation ward. Three days later, she died due to excessive bleeding.

The matter came to light on Tuesday when her mother-in-law informed the authorities concerned about the shocking incident.

The 25-year-old victim had returned to Bihar’s Gaya district from Ludhiana (in Punjab) along with her husband on March 25. Before returning to her in-laws’ place, she had undergone abortion at Ludhiana just when she was two months pregnant.

On reaching Gaya, she complained of excessive bleeding. Her husband admitted her to Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH) on March 27 where she was kept in the emergency ward.

Later, on April 1, on being suspected to be coronavirus patient, she was kept in an isolation ward. Her family members alleged that it was in this isolation ward where a doctor attending to her overnight outraged her modesty for two successive nights on April 2 and 3.

“The following day, she was discharged from the hospital after her coronavirus test report was found to be negative. However, after returning home, she remained aloof and struck by fear. On questioning, she revealed how a doctor had sexually abused her in the isolation ward. On April 6, she passed away due to excessive bleeding,” said her mother-in-law.

On receiving the information, the local police asked the mother-in-law to come to the hospital on Tuesday and identify the doctor (about whom the victim had given a description). However, the accused was not identified.

“Prima facie, the matter is serious. We are verifying the allegations. We will dig out the CCTV footage in the hospital and take strict action after identifying the culprit,” said Dr VK Prasad, the hospital superintendent.

Meanwhile, the Gaya police have arrested two people who posed as doctors and entered the isolation ward using doctors’ kits. One of the apprehended people works in a private.

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