HC rejects Ghandat’s bail plea

MUMBAI, June 18: The Bombay High Court today rejected the bail pleas of Sitaram Ghandat, sitting MLA and chairman of Abhyudaya co-operative...

MUMBAI, June 18: The Bombay High Court today rejected the bail pleas of Sitaram Ghandat, sitting MLA and chairman of Abhyudaya co-operative bank, and five other bank directors arrested in the Rs five crore scam.

Justice A S Venkatachala Moorthy, in his order, noted that the court was rejecting the bail plea of Ghandat, Bhiva Shivdikar, Achyut Kandapile, Yashwant Shinde, Alwyn Rodrigues and Ashok Chalke. He said their release can lead to doctoring of evidence in the ongoing investigations.

The court, however, confirmed the interim bail of five other accused including managing director Madhukar Chavan.

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In case of the managing director, the court agreed that he was merely an employee of the bank and therefore not involved in policy decisions. In case of builders, the prosecution had argued there was not an iota of evidence against them.

Public prosecutor V T Tulpule submitted that police had not been able to lay hands on any material to establish that the builders had received kickbacks from the directors of the bank.

Ghandat and five other bank directors had surrendered before the Mumbai police on May 30 and the court of metropolitan magistrate who first remanded them to policy custody till June 14, thereafter to judicial custody till June 24.

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