Maharashtra BJP leader Pravin Darekar gets protection from arrest till Monday

The reprieve for Maharashtra BJP leader Pravin Darekar comes a day after the high court declined relief and told him to approach the competent court for any relief.

MUMBAI: A Mumbai court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to Pravin Darekar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and leader of opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council in connection with an FIR registered against him on a complaint by an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader.

Maharashtra BJP leader Pravin Darekar (HT File Photo)

Additional sessions judge Rahul Rokade told the police not to arrest Pravin Darekar till Monday when the court will resume the hearing on his plea for pre-arrest bail. On Thursday, the state government sought time to respond to his anticipatory bail request.

The reprieve comes a day after the Bombay high court declined relief to Pravin Darekar and told him to approach the competent court for any relief.

Darekar is accused of using bogus membership of a labour society to get elected as a director of Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank — one of the biggest cooperative banks in the state — from the quota reserved for such societies though he was not a labourer.

Pravin Darekar, who was chairman of the cooperative bank for 10 years between 2011 and 2021, was booked by the Mumbai police on Monday under sections 200 (false declaration), 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery), 120-b (criminal conspiracy), and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Darekar is alleged to have registered himself as a labourer with Pratidnya Labour Cooperative Society (PLCS) in 1997 to contest elections.

The FIR also accused Darekar of cheating the state government and causing losses to the bank due to unrecovered loans.

“The allegations are serious and Darekar should be arrested immediately. The MVA acted upon my complaint only after action was taken by central agencies against its leaders,” Dhananjay Shinde, state secretary of AAP, said earlier.

Apprehending arrest, Darekar filed an anticipatory bail plea through advocate Akhilesh Chaubey.

In his plea, the BJP leader stated, “That the statement of the complainant itself speaks that the present applicant became member of labour society in 1997. It is to be noted in 1997, I was neither MLA nor was I having any business. I was staying in a slum in Dahisar East and was a labour and hence become a member of PLCS. That the whole complaint is about a labourer becoming leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Council. It is admitted fact that the applicant was not issued a single notice in respect of his membership as a labourer till 14th of December, 2021”.

It added that the moment he received the show-cause notice from the competent authority, he immediately resigned from the post of Director of Mumbai District Central Co-Operative Bank and as a law-abiding citizen, approached the appellate authority, and challenged the order passed by the competent authority.

He claimed he hadn’t made any wrongful gain by indulging in malpractices as alleged. The whole exercise of prosecution was under the influence of the state government to stop him from making allegations regarding the corruption of state government, the petition said.