Pune: A special court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail application of developer D S Kulkarni (68) and his wife Hemanti (58) in connection with cheating case filed against them.
Special Judge J T Utpat passed the order after hearing police and DSK defence lawyers arguments.
On October 28, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Pune police Crime Branch had registered an FIR with the Shivajinagar police station against Kulkarni and his wife for cheating and criminal breach of trust of the Indian Penal Code and offences under Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act. Later charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and offences under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act were added.
In their pre-arrest bail plea moved before the Special Court for Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act on Friday, Kulkarni said a false complaint has been filed due to misunderstanding, as a substantial amount of deposit is yet to mature. The DSK group of companies was working round-the-clock for raising money by sale of properties to repay the amounts of deposits. All depositors will get refund by March 2018, the plea stated.
On the other hand police officials said that an expert report from chartered accountant shows that DSK had diverted funds collected from people, for other purposes and that he will find it difficult to refund money of all depositors. There are 66 cases filed against him.
On Tuesday, additional public prosecutor Sunil Hande, while arguing the case on behalf of presecution, said, “Only eight of DSK's companies are registered, while people were made to deposit money in 30 non-registered companies. Over 1340 people have approached police saying they have been cheated of over Rs 50 crores. The number of complainants are increasing day by day.
Police suspect that about 15,000 people have invested money in DSK companies. DSK has to refund Rs 622 crores to people. Though flats are incomplete, he has taken money from banks from whom people had taken loan to purchase the flats. He is also pressurizing people, whose deposits have matured, to renew them. At present there is about Rs 1400 crores bank loans on DSK properties. He used to buy land in relatives name but used to get investments in DSK Group companies. Therefore, to investigate all these matters police require their custody and hence their anticipatory bail application should be rejected.”
