These waivers were given to:

• Anjali Dilipsingh Patil (Pratibha Patil’s niece), who got a waiver of Rs. 29.86 lakh

• Kavita Aravind Patil (sister-in-law of Pratibha Patil), who got a waiver of Rs. 8.59 lakh; and

• Rajkaur Dilipsingh Patil (another sister-in-law of Pratibha Patil), who got a waiver of Rs. 2.47 lakh.

The writ petition filed by the banks’ depositors in the High Court makes serious and more direct allegations against the founder chairperson.

It states, “Pratibha Patil is the founder member of the bank who is a politically influential personality. She has made all her relatives as Directors of the bank and the bank is being run as good as a family business. Because of the influence of respondent no 8 (Prathiba Patil) the bank has given various loans to the relatives and to a sugar factory of which she is a Director. Her relatives have not paid back the loans. Most of the loans were given without security. Most of the loans are closed.”

Vijay Kumar Kakade, former president of Pratibha Sahakari Bank Karmachari Sangh, told The Indian Express that with the cancellation of its licence and commencement of liquidation process, the bank was closed and people lost their jobs. “Pratibha Patil was responsible for this. There is no personal enmity with Patil madam, but we want to tell our countrymen that such a person is going to occupy the highest office.”