At least 10 depositors of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank were on Friday detained for protesting in front of ‘Varsha’, the official residence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at Malabar Hill area, an official said. The protesters, mostly women, had gathered outside the CM’s bungalow with placards reading “Kali Diwali, thank you PMC (Black Diwali, thank you PMC)” for a silent protest. However, police asked them to move away from the site and later detained them for refusing to leave the site, a police official said. When contacted, Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Pranay Ashok said that the protesters “were detained and then taken to Azad Maidan Police. From there they were released”. Andheri resident Suman Chouhan, a PMC Bank account holder, said, “Around 3.30pm we reached outside CM’s bungalow and wanted to hold a silent protest there. In some time, the police came and asked us to leave from the spot. Later, all of us were detained in a police van and released at Azad Maidan ground. It was a peaceful protest and we were only sitting there without disturbing anybody, but still the police removed us from there. We are not thieves and it is our right to protest and stand peacefully on a footpath,” Chouhan said. Depositors said the irregularities at the bank had wiped out their savings, leaving them penniless during the festival of lights. Miffed over being detaining, some angry protesters also slammed the state government for doing nothing to get them back their hard-earned money. So far, six PMC bank account holders have died after the over Rs 4,000-crore scam came to the fore. Victims of the bank scam are planning to organise a huge morcha on October 30 in Mumbai.
