Judge raps CBI, extends remand for Ketan, others by a week

Our Markets Bureau

Mumbai, April 26 : SPECIAL judge AR Joshi of the designated court came down heavily on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday before extending the remand of the three accused -- stock broker Ketan Parekh, his cousin Kartik Parekh and an official of Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB) JB Pandya for seven days, who defrauded Bank of India (BoI) to the tune of Rs 137 crore in the now infamous pay-order scam.

The judge also declined to extend the remand of the accused for 14 days as demanded by special public prosecutor and also asked the CBI to submit the report on the progress of the investigation in this scam since the arrest of the accused, on the day of the next hearing of the remand application on May 3. The judge was apparently not satisfied with the grounds of seeking the custody of the accused and he advised the CBI to be clear in their submissions on the next occasion about the progress of the case and told them not to seek judicial custody mechanically.

CBI prosecutor Bharat Singh Raghuvanshi, seeking the remand, said the end use of the defrauded amount was to be probed. He opposed the bail plea of the accused, saying that the accused might tamper with probe or hamper investigations, if released on bail. He said investigations had revealed that certain shares of Himachal Futuristic Communication Ltd and Mascon Global Ltd (formerly D-Assan Leasing) were purchased by some brokers on behalf of Panther Fin Cap and Classic Credit Pvt Ltd, belonging to the Ketan Parekh group.

Ketan’s companies owed certain money to these brokers and this was paid from the defrauded amount of BoI. Thus, Ketan used the defrauded amount to meet his financial commitments, CBI alleged.

Counsel for Ketan Parekh and Kartik Parekh, Shirish Gupte, making an oral plea for the bail, said that the CBI was repeating the same grounds of arrest every time they sought their remand. His clients were neither questioned nor had any CBI official gone to Thane central jail and made an attempt to confront the accused in the the last 15 days.

Mr Gupte claimed that his clients wanted to pay back the amount to BoI and for this purpose they should be released on bail. Ketan and Kartik could be prosecuted, but they should be given a chance to return the alleged defrauded amount, their counsel told the court.

Counsel for JB Pandya, Vijay Garg, said his client was not an influential person as mentioned by the CBI, and therefore was not likely to tamper with evidence, if granted bail.