MARGAO
With the whereabouts of the 250-odd locker holders unknown, the Madgaum Urban Cooperative Bank has issued a final notice to the locker holders to surrender the lockers and take custody of their valuables.
Giving the locker holders eight-day time to comply with the notice, government-appointed Liquidator, S V Naik has warned that it will have no option than to break open the lockers at their own cost and consequences to facilitate the process of liquidation.
The liquidator had on August 31 last called upon all the locker holders of the MUCB to surrender their lockers and take custody of their valuables on or before September 30, 2021.
In this respect, the branch managers had issued registered AD final notice to those locker holders who failed in surrendering their lockers, informing them to surrender the lockers within 15 days from the date of receipt of the notice.
Liquidator-appointed special officer, Kishore Amonkar informed that while many locker holders turned up at the bank to surrender the lockers and take custody of their valuables, there are still others who are yet to surrender their lockers to the bank.
Amonkar informed that around 250-odd locker holders are yet to surrender their lockers till date, adding that the Liquidator has been left with no option than to open the lockers. “What we are planning to do now is to open the lockers, if the holders do not turn up, and shift the valuables to the head office by following with the laid down procedure,” he said.
Amonkar added: Since some of the MUCB branches are operating from rented premises, the lockers cannot remain in these premises for long. Hence, it has been decided to take custody of the valuables after the due date and shift the valuables to the head office.
Sources in the know informed that though the Liquidator will be taking custody of the valuables if the holders do not surrender the lockers within the deadline, the holders can still approach the Liquidator to take custody of the valuables till the Registrar issues a certificate of liquidation of the bank.
Sources further said the Liquidator will come to know the valuables in the lockers only after they are opened as per the laid down guidelines.
Meanwhile, the audit of the MUCB branches by the insurance agency stands completed. Sources say the completion of the audit implies that the process of returning the deposits of the depositors is expected to commence soon, with an official saying the process to return back the deposits may tentatively start before the month-end.
