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‘Integral to personal liberty’: Mumbai court allows MSCB case accused to travel to Dubai for sugar conference

The Mumbai court noted that the prosecution's apprehensions can be addressed by imposing stringent conditions.

3 min readMumbaiUpdated: Jan 13, 2026 04:32 PM IST

The MSCB fraud case involves allegations of Rs 25,000-crore loss due to irregularities in loan disbursements to sugar mills and their subsequent undervalued sale to relatives of the bank's directors.

In the money-laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) fraud, a special court in Mumbai Monday permitted a director of a sugar mill to travel abroad to attend the Dubai Sugar Conference in February.

The MSCB fraud case involves allegations of Rs 25,000-crore loss due to irregularities in loan disbursements to sugar mills and their subsequent undervalued sale to relatives of the bank’s directors.

Sachin Singare, the current director and authorised representative of the accused firm Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd, sought to attend the business conference to be held in Dubai from February 6 to February 11. He said that after the conference, he also wanted to take a family vacation in Dubai. Singare submitted an itinerary of the conference along with his application.

The Dubai Sugar Conference is to be held from February 2 to February 5. It involves discussions on sugar consumption, sessions titled ‘What will it take to get sugar back to where it needs to be?’, ‘Artificial Intelligence-driven intelligence for sugar’, and ‘What will we find out about India?’, an international sugar quiz, and a global sugar industry lifetime achievement award.

“It is pertinent to note that the applicant has placed on record the copy of invitation to the Dubai Sugar Conference 2026 and Post-Conference Exporter’s Meeting and so also the Itinerary of his visit to Dubai. Previously, the applicant has availed permission from this Court to travel abroad. He has not violated any of the terms and conditions imposed by the Court,” Special Judge Mahesh K Jadhav said.

“It is well settled that the right to travel abroad is a valuable one and an integral part of the right to personal liberty. Apprehension of the prosecution can be addressed by imposing stringent conditions upon the applicant,” the court noted.

Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills is one of the accused, along with current and former MLAs, including Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s Rohit Pawar, Prasad Tanpure, Arjun Khotkar, and sugar factories. While the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had sought to close the case, citing that there is no evidence of cheating, the court is currently hearing protest petitions against the EOW’s closure report.

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The central agency has alleged that the MSCB took over sugar factories after suffering losses and they were later sold at an undervalued price to firms linked to the bank’s directors and others.