A special Pune court today granted bail to Bank of Maharashtra's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ravindra Marathe in a cheating case involving city-based real estate developer DS Kulkarni and his wife, among others.
Judge SN Sardesai of the special court set up under the Maharashtra Protection Of Interest Of Depositors (MPID) Act granted the relief to Marathe on a surety bond of Rs 50,000.
While granting bail to Marathe, the court remanded other persons arrested in the case in judicial custody for 14 days.
The other accused arrested in the case included the bank's Executive Director Rajendra Gupta, Zonal Manager Nityanand Deshpande, former CMD Sushil Muhnot, besides DS Kulkarni Developers' chartered accountant Sunil Ghatpande and DSKDL's engineering section's Vice-President Rajeev Newaskar.
While granting the relief to Marathe, the court barred him from leaving the country without its permission and ordered him to to cooperate with the police, said defence counsel for Harshad Nimbalkar. The court also warned Marathe against trying to tamper with the evidence or influence witnesses, he added.
Nimbalkar said the argument on the bail applications of the remaining five accused will be heard tomorrow.
The Economic Offences Wing of Pune Police had last week arrested Marathe and other top officials of the bank on charges of misusing their official positions for sanctioning and disbursing loan to DS Kulkarni's firm DSKDL.
Marathe, through his lawyer, had contended in his bail plea that his arrest was illegal because the police had failed to take prior permission of the RBI for his arrest and prosecution, which, he said was necessary as he “holds the rank of a secretary” by virtue of his position as MD and CEO.
The court granted bail after the prosecution said further custodial interrogation of Marathe was not required and necessary documents have already been seized.
According to the police, bank officials had colluded with DSKDL by misusing their powers and authority with a “dishonest and fraudulent intention” to sanction and disburse the amount under the garb of a loan.
In May, the city police had filed a 37,000-page charge sheet against DSK and his wife in the case.
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