Ketan Parekh gets conditional bail

Ahmedabad, Aug 24: STOCK broker Ketan Parekh, arrested for alleged fraud and misappropriation of public funds belonging to Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank (MMCB), was given bail on Friday, on condition that he would pay Rs 16 crore to the bank within three to six months.

Chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) Smitaben Shah, before whom Parekh was produced by the CBI, also asked the accused to furnish Rs 2 lakh in cash and solvency surety of Rs 10 lakh.

The accused on Friday gave a written undertaking that he would give MMCB Rs 16 crore to be paid to its over 1 lakh small investors within three to six months.

The CMM also asked Parekh to produce himself every Monday before the CBI in Mumbai which was investigating the MMCB and the Rs 135-crore pay order scam.

Moreover, one of the other conditions of bail was that Parekh should return to MMCB its Rs 380 crore, which he had allegedly misappropriated with others accused in the case within three years, failing which he was liable to be arrested.

On March 30, Parekh was first arrested in a Rs 137-crore pay order scam on a complaint filed by Bank of India (BoI). He was released on bail on May 21.

BOI had alleged that pay orders issued by MMCB’s Mandvi branch in Mumbai in favour of Parekh’s firms bounced but the money was credited to the account of the beneficiaries. BOI, thereby, suffered a loss of Rs 137 crore.

MMCB filed a separate case in Ahmedabad on April 21 alleging fraud and misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 1,035 crore by some companies, including those belonging to Parekh. The bank alleged that a huge amount of money had been drained out.

In this case he was arrested on April 10 and produced before a local court and was remanded to seven days’ custody.

His remand was again extended for seven days, when he was produced on August 18 before the court of CMM Smitaben Shah.
Parekh would have to produce the receipts of the payment
he would be making to MMCB before the CMM’s court, the order said.

(PTI)