Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the government has nothing to do whatsoever with the multi-crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam in which thousands of depositors have been duped of their money by its promoters.

The FM, however, assured that the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) will take appropriate action against those found guilty in the PMC bankscam.

''Finance Ministry may have nothing to do with it (PMC bank matter) directly because RBI is the regulator. But from my side, I've asked the secretaries of my ministry to work with Rural Development Ministry and theUrban Development Ministry to study in detail as to what is happening,'' the FMsaid.

FM Sitharaman said this after meeting the depositors ofPunjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, who staged a massive protestoutside the BJP office in Mumbai.

While addressing the media after the meeting, Sitharamanstated that the government has set up a group to prevent such incidents.As theFM addressed the media, Krishna, a depositor said, "I don't know whatthey're doing, don't care what they're doing. I want my money back. I won't beable to earn again whatever I've put in the bank."

On Wednesday, hundreds of depositors of the PMC Bank stageda protest outside the Esplanade magistrate's court, demanding stringent actionagainst the culprits as the police custody of three accused in Rs 4,355 crorescam at the bank was extended till October 14.The court granted the request ofthe Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for further remand.

Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) chairman andmanaging director Rakesh Wadhawan, his son Sarang and former bank chairmanWaryam Singh have been booked by the EOW in connection with the scam forallegedly causing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.

Besides the trio, the EOW has also arrested Joy Thomas,former managing director of the bank, whose police custody is set to expire onOctober 17.

The EOW had earlier told the court that bank officialsreplaced 44 loan accounts of HDIL with 21,049 fictitious loan accounts, tocamouflage huge loan defaults by the real estate group which landed the bank inthe current crisis.