Sessions Court rejects Neil Somaiya’s pre-arrest bail plea

Additional Sessions Judge Deepak L Bhagwat rejected the BJP councillor’s plea by pronouncing the operative part of the order, which will be made available later.

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

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had on February 15 made the allegations against the BJP leader’s son (HT PHOTO)

Additional Sessions Judge Deepak L Bhagwat rejected the BJP councillor’s plea by pronouncing the operative part of the order, which will be made available later.

Neil had approached the court through advocate 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 First Information Report (FIR).

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

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

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

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

Kirit Somaiya has denied the allegations and maintained that his son was not at all related to Wadhawan or the multi-crore fraud at PMC Bank.

The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police has on September 30, 2019, registered an offence in connection with the purported fraud at PMC Bank, a multi-state 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 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 to ensure its master data tallied with the loan disbursals of ₹7,457.49 crore, RBI had stated in an affidavit filed in the Bombay high court in response to public interest litigation on the fraud.