CBI case against Pushpak Bullions: Court rejects company director’s pre-arrest bail plea

Patel had filed an anticipatory bail before the special court stating that the case “smacks of vendetta and of selective witch hunt” stating that the complaint was filed with a “premeditated mindset” to falsely implicate the company and him without evidence.

The CBI FIR had alleged that an official of the Union Bank of India had complained in 2020 that Pushpak Bullions’ directors had entered into a criminal conspiracy and got credit facilities sanctioned aggregating to Rs 140 crore to it from Union Bank of India and Bank of India. The CBI has alleged that forged financial statements were submitted and funds were siphoned off from debtors.

Patel had said in his plea that the company was regularly paying and discharging dues of the banks and had not defaulted. His plea said that the CBI had failed to assign any role to him in the complaint.

Special Judge A S Sayyad said that the investigation in the case is at a nascent stage and that the CBI is in the process of collecting documents and examining witnesses. “In such serious offences, an opportunity of fair investigation is required to be given to the CBI to unearth the truth of the crime. At the initial stage, it would be difficult to decide the fate of the accused whether the accused has actually committed offence or not,” the court said, stating that allowing Patel’s pre arrest bail plea will affect the investigation.

The transactions alleged in the current FIR precede the previous case which was closed by the CBI citing no evidence in 2020.

In 2017, the CBI, and subsequently the Enforcement Directorate (ED), had named Pushpak Bullions in separate complaints claiming that between November 15 and November 26, 2016, cash to the tune of Rs 84.6 crore was fraudulently shown to have been deposited in a current account of two companies. It was claimed that this was done by fabricating records at the time of demonetisation where notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were withdrawn as currency. The amount was alleged to have been transferred into an NPA (Non-Performing Asset) account in the name of Pushpak Bullion Pvt Ltd, maintained with the same bank.

The ED had claimed that bank norms were violated to convert tainted money as untainted money. The ED had in March 2022 also provisionally attached 11 residential flats of Pushpak Bullions at a real estate project developed by Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt Ltd, a company promoted by Shridhar Madhav Patankar, the brother of Rashmi Thackeray, wife of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

In 2020, however, the CBI had filed its first closure report claiming that there was no evidence to substantiate the charges. The court had directed the CBI to continue its probe and again in 2022 the agency said that it stood by its closure report and maintained that there was no evidence. The special court had in August accepted the CBI’s report and closed the case stating that the queries raised by it were answered satisfactorily by the central agency, even as the ED opposed the report, claiming an improper probe by the CBI.