Mumbai court rejects Neil Somaiya’s pre-arrest bail plea

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on February 15 made the allegations against Neil Somaiya, son of BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, and demanded that he be arrested for his alleged links to the multi-crore PMC Bank fraud.

MUMBAI: A Mumbai sessions court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya’s son Neil, who apprehended arrest in connection with the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank case.

BJP councillor Neil Somaiya approached the court, claiming that several baseless allegations were made against him and he was worried, and apprehended that he might be arrested by the Maharashtra police in some fake case either old or by registering a new FIR. (File/Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

Additional sessions judge Deepak L Bhagwat rejected the BJP councillor’s plea by pronouncing operative part of the order. The detailed order will be available later.

Neil approached the court through advocates Hrishikesh Mundargi and Paavani Chaddha, claiming that several baseless allegations were made against him and he was worried, and apprehended that he might be arrested by the state police in some fake case either old or by registering a new FIR.

He requested the court that he should be given at least 72 hours’ notice in advance in case the police intend to arrest and secure his custody. He also claimed that the allegations were made against him out of political vendetta.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on February 15 made the allegations against the BJP leader’s son and demanded that he be arrested for his alleged links to the multi-crore fraud at PMC Bank.

Raut alleged that BJP corporator Neil was the business partner of the prime accused in the case, Rakesh Wadhwan, a promotor of HDIL, the purported major beneficiary of the fraud.

Raut alleged that Neil was working as a director in the company of the mastermind of the scam and set up several projects worth thousands of crores and formed companies like Nikon Infra Construction Company.

Kirit Somaiya had earlier denied the allegations and said that his son was not at all related to Wadhawan or the fraud at PMC Bank.

The economic offences wing of the Mumbai police had on September 30, 2019, registered an offence in connection with the fraud at PMC Bank, a cooperative bank having 137 branches in six states.

According to the Reserve Bank of India, PMC Bank had masked 44 problematic loan accounts involving advances to the tune of ₹7,457.49 crore, most of which went to HDIL, by tampering with its core banking system so as to ensure the loan accounts were not reflected in the regular bank record and were not visible to external auditors.

The bank had created 21,049 fictitious accounts in order to ensure its master data tallied with the loan disbursals of ₹7,457.49 crore, the RBI had stated in an affidavit filed in the Bombay high court in response to a public interest litigation pertaining to the fraud.