Depositors of Guru Raghavendra Bank stage protest, asks RBI to enhance withdrawal limit

The Depositors of Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank Niyamitha today held a protest to commemorate 1 year of Restriction imposed on the Bank U/S 35A of the Banking Regulation Act 1949 (AACS) by RBI and highlight the difficulty faced by the depositors.

The protest was held opposite Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank (Ni) near Nettakallappa Circle in which hundreds of depositors had assembled.

After the embezzlement by its promoters came to light and depositors raised the issue in the media about facing issues in withdrawing money, authorities stepped in. From one end Registat of Cooperative Society superseded and later RBI imposed restrictions limiting withdrawal by the depositors to Rs 35,000. However, after some time withdrawal was enhanced to Rs 1 lakh.

Now the depositors claim that they are not even able to withdraw Rs 1 lakh on time.

Some of the depositors say that the bank has over 50,000 members and the scam is worth about Rs 1,400 crore as some of the executives allegedly diverted funds which led to the crisis at the bank.

Earlier in September 2020, the Enforcement Directorate had attached properties worth Rs 45.32 crore of bank management's top executives as they were facing an allegation of swindling the depositors' money and a case under the money laundering act was slapped on top officials.

After some of the depositors filed a case, the PIL court asked the police to probe and the case is under investigation.