Nitin Desai death: HC refuses to grant immediate relief to accused from coercive action, to hear pleas on Aug 18

Pending the hearing of their pleas, the accused also sought interim relief of ‘no coercive action’ and that the probe be stayed until then. The high court said the accused can wait till the hearing next week.

A division bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre and Justice Rajesh N Laddha issued notice to Desai’s wife, Neha, who is the complainant in the FIR and respondent in the pleas seeking the quashing of the FIR against Edelweiss officials for alleged abetment of suicide of Desai.

A National Award-winning art director, Desai was found dead in his studio on August 2. In an audio note seized from his studio, he could allegedly be heard blaming Bansal, Shah and three others for his financial condition, the police had said.

Neha subsequently submitted a written complaint to Raigad police and an FIR was filed at Khalapur police station on August 4 against five persons under sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

ECL Finance is a non-banking finance arm of the Edelweiss Group which lent Rs 181 crore to Desai’s firm, ND’s Art World, between 2016 and 2018. The police have sent notice to the managing director of ECL Finance, seeking information on various aspects pertaining to loans sanctioned to Desai.

Shah and Bansal, in their pleas filed on August 7, claimed that they were merely following the official and legal process of recovery and that the FIR against them was uncalled for and there was no abetment to suicide.

On July 25, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had initiated the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process against ND’s Art World Private Limited in view of an outstanding debt of Rs 252.48 crore.