Ex-PMC Bank MD Thomas led double life; owns 10 properties with 2nd wife
Mumbai: Joy Thomas, the former MD of scam -hit PMC Bank, converted to Islam and became Junaid Khan to marry his personal assistant, with whom he allegedly jointly owns 10 properties in Pune, police officials said on Monday.
Thomas, arrested earlier this month, is one of the key accused in the alleged Rs 4,355-crore scam at the city-based Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank.
Real estate firm HDIL's promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang and the bank's former chairman, Waryam Singh, are the other accused in the scam.
The Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), which is investigating the fraud case, has found that since 2012, Thomas (62) had purchased nine flats and a shop in Kondhwa and other areas of Pune.
These ten properties were purchased jointly by Thomas and his second wife, who was his former assistant at the bank, the officials said. All these properties were bought by the husband-wife duo since the beginning of 2012, they said.
This was also the time when the Wadhawans of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) began to default on loans taken from the bank, but kept borrowing additional amounts from the cooperative lender, they said.
The source of money used by Thomas and his second wife to buy these properties is being ascertained, they said.
"We are yet to find out the share percentage of ownership in these ten properties," an official said.
Besides the ten properties in Pune, Thomas also owns a flat in adjoining Thane and a commercial property which is under the control of his son from his first wife, he said.
Thomas married his personal assistant at the bank after converting to Islam and acquired a new name, Junaid Khan, the officials said.
When Thomas's first wife came to know about his second marriage, she filed for divorce and the case is in the final stages, they said. Thomas, arrested on October 4, is in police custody till October 17.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
