Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank depositors say they continue to face hardships

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], August 14 (ANI): The depositors of Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank on Saturday said they continue to face an extremely difficult situation in accessing their money after a restriction was placed on the bank under U/S 35A of the Banking Regulation Act 1949 (AACS) by the RBI.
"On January 10th, 2020 this bank went bust and all depositors were afflicted by this restriction as they had no access to their own money. Depositors have been allowed to withdraw the maximum of Rs.1 Lakh from one and a half years", they said in a statement.
The depositors said, the bank has presented a rosy 'Audit Report Year' on Year, and RBI and Registat of Cooperative Society (RCS) kept giving good ratings which generated immense confidence for depositors to invest in the Bank.
"Notwithstanding all the difficulties we the depositors are still no in a position to access our money and when prospective investors were approached for the revival of the Bank we were advised to get Financial Statement and Audit Report but even past one and a half year later, all the expertise in the bank could not release Financial Statement and Audit Report even for the year 2019-20", it added further.
In the midst of this development, in order to express their anguish, frustration, and demand justice against the system periodically, protests have been conducted and the voice has been raised against the injustice done to them.
A peacefyl protest was held in front of the Bank, RBI & RCS and one of the Depositors Harish V who has been admonished by the Police in Basavanagudi Police Station on 12th August, according to a statement by the SGRSB Depositor Forum.
"There has been no threat issued neither by Harish V or any Depositors to Administrator, CEO, or other Bank Staff. This is a serious matter of Violation of Fundamental Right like Right to Freedom Right against Exploitation, Police using intimidation tactics of filing false cases to scuttle the voices of dissent and demand for Justice", the depositors said.
Meanwhile, on August 9 Parliament passed the amendment to the Deposit Insurance Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) Bill, 2021 in Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya lauded Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and said the bill would provide interim relief to all depositors of the stressed Sri Guru Raghavendra Cooperative Bank. (ANI)