₹2 crore cheating case: HC confirms pre-arrest bail to Baby Patankar

Bombay High Court grants pre-arrest bail to Shashikala aka Baby Patankar in cheating case of ₹1.98 crore. Court finds no connection with alleged transactions.

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted pre-arrest bail to Shashikala aka Baby Patankar since the Worli police failed to connect her with the alleged transactions designed to cheat a Customs’ clearing agent to the tune of ₹1.98 crore on the pretext of selling him 5 kg gold at cheaper rates in October 2021.

A division bench of justices Tarlok Singh Chouhan and Sushil Kukreja said, “We are at pains to note that this court is flooded with litigation where promotions/appointments etc. have been denied solely on the ground of imposition of Model Code of Conduct.” (Getty Images/iStockphoto/ Representational image)

In September 2023, the Worli police booked Patankar, along with one Parashuram Ramkishan Munde, for allegedly duping Kirit Chavan, 61, a Cuffe Parade resident who owns a customs clearing agency. In his complaint to the police, Chavan said he planned to get into gold trading and had contacted Munde through his acquaintances. Munde, who identified himself to be a director in RRM Gold Trading Pvt Ltd, purportedly told him that he buys gold in customs auctions at a lot cheaper rates than the prevailing market price and offered Chauhan gold at a cheaper rate.

Mundhe, according to Chauhan, called him on October 21, 2023, and took him to the Bhiwandiwala Building at Worli Naka where he introduced him to Patankar claiming she had five kilograms of raw gold, and it was available for sale.

He claimed that Patankar showed him a total of 6.5 kg gold - five gold bars weighing 1 kg each and 15 gold biscuits and he verified and found the gold to be genuine. Munde then gave the complainant two bills. The first bill of ₹1.31 crore was for three kilograms of gold and the second was ₹87.69 lakh for the remaining two kg gold. The complainant said he accordingly paid an amount of ₹1.98 crore to the accused but did not get the gold.

While Munde was arrested, Patankar approached the high court for pre-arrest bail. Acting on her plea, the high court on October 18, 2023, granted her interim protection from arrest, observing that “prima facie there is neither allegation of inducement nor material to connect the applicant (Patankar) with the amount of which the first informant was allegedly defrauded.”

On Thursday, a single judge bench of Justice NJ Jamadar confirmed the anticipatory bail to the woman, who was earlier arrested in a drugs trafficking case.

“It appears that the transaction was primarily between the first informant and Parshuram Munde (accused No. 1),” Justice Jamadar said. The court said that based on the material collected during the investigation after passing the interim order, an inference cannot be drawn that Patankar had any nexus with the account to which the money was allegedly transferred by the complainant.

“In the absence of any further material to connect the applicant with the alleged offence and the investigation having been completed, I am impelled to hold that the order of interim bail deserves to be made absolute,” the bench said while confirming the interim order.