Mumbai, Nov. 11 -- The Bhandup police have registered a fresh cheating case against Joy Thomas, former managing director of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank and a key accused in the Rs.4,635-crore fraud case involving the bank and real estate company HDIL. Along with Joy, the police have also booked Kamaljit Kaur, the bank's former chief manager and secretary to the MD, and real estate firm Shubham Commercial Enterprises Pvt Ltd, along with its directors Nimit Chheda and Ruchik Chheda. The case involves PMC Bank's purchase of properties worth Rs.14.5 crore in 2018 from Shubham Commercial Enterprises without the mandatory disclosure to the RBI. According to the police, the bank had purchased three shops and 30 offices in a Panvel project developed by the real estate firm to set up a new branch. But the firm allegedly neither handed over possession of the properties nor refunded the money. PMC Bank officials acted negligently and failed to follow the rules when purchasing the properties, resulting in a loss to the bank and a profit to the builder, the police said. According to the bank's bye-laws, both the central registrar of co-operative societies and the RBI should have been informed about the property transaction. The case was registered based on a complaint filed by Vijay Kumar, senior vice president of Unity Small Finance Bank, which took over PMC Bank in 2022 following an RBI-mandated merger after the 2019 fraud. "Unity Small Finance Bank has learnt that PMC, which was headquartered in Bhandup, had purchased three shops and 30 offices in a project of Shubham Commercial Enterprises Pvt Ltd. The properties were to be developed in Panvel for a new branch. The bank's MD at the time was Joy Thomas," said an officer from the Bhandup police station. According to the complaint, PMC Bank and Shubham Commercial Enterprises had signed an MoU in 2018 for the property purchase. The developer was supposed to hand over possession of the properties by June 2018. The bank had paid the developer Rs.14.5 crore out of the total agreed amount of Rs.15 crore. However, when Unity Small Finance Bank officials visited the site in August 2024, they discovered that the builder had left the project midway. When they started demanding the money back, they allegedly didn't get any response, and the builder did not reply to notices sent in 2025. The accused have been booked under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the BNS, said the police officer....