Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said he will request the central government to resolve the crisis in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank after the October 21 state Assembly elections, NDTV reported. His statement came a day after 51-year-old Sanjay Gulati, whose family had reportedly deposited around Rs 90 lakh in the bank, died of a heart attack in Mumbai.

Gulati died on Monday evening, hours after he had attended a protest march outside a city court. He was under a lot of stress, another agitator Manali Narkar said. Gulati was reportedly a former employee of Jet Airways and lost his job earlier this year when the carrier was grounded.

Sanjay Gulati’s relative Rajesh Dua said the family required money regularly for the treatment of his specially-abled child. “Sanjay had been disturbed for the past several days as he was not able to withdraw money from his own account,” Dua told India Today.

The Enforcement Directorate is looking into allegations that the bank did not report all non-performing assets, or bad loans, after providing funds to a number of companies. The total amount of such loans is estimated to be between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore.

Last month, the RBI had imposed restrictions and said depositors would not be allowed to withdraw more than Rs 1,000 from the bank for six months. The central bank also said PMC Bank would not be allowed to grant or renew any loans and advances, make any investment, incur any liability including borrowal of funds. A few days later it increased the withdrawal limit for bank customers to Rs 25,000, and on Monday, it raised it to Rs 40,000.

“We will request the Centre to help depositors get their money back,” Fadnavis said while releasing the BJP manifesto on Tuesday. “I will personally be following up on this. The RBI never said state government controls the bank. It’s a multi-state bank and licences are given by the RBI only. We have initiated action by the EoW and action has been taken against those responsible. We will do everything possible in our capacity to help the depositors of PMC Bank.”

On Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had told her he would keep the interests of the customers in mind while trying to resolve the crisis.

Also read:

1. Who is to blame for the mess at PMC bank (and will depositors get their money back)?

2. As PMC Bank crisis shows, depositors will benefit if RBI is more transparent about defaulters

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