Real estate baron DSK’s brother arrested from Mumbai airport

Makarand Kulkarni, brother of Pune-based developer DS Kulkarni, was arrested by Pune Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday, after being detained at the Chhatrapati

Makarand Kulkarni, brother of Pune-based developer DS Kulkarni, was arrested by Pune Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday, after being detained at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA).

HT Image

A lookout notice was already issued against him.

“He was detained at Mumbai airport,” confirmed a senior EOW officer from Pune. Makarand,66, was on his way to Dubai.

Makarand was one of the accused in the ₹2,000- crore DSK fraud. Makarand’s anticipatory bail was earlier rejected by a Pune court.

DS Kulkarni, founder and chairman of DS Kulkarni Developers Ltd (DSKDL), his wife Hemanti D Kulkarni, and their son, Shirish Kulkarni, cheated more than 35,000 people of ₹1,129 crore in a deposit scheme from 2009 to 2016, according to ED officials. DS Kulkarni and his wife were arrested by Pune police from New Delhi on February 17, 2018. Shirish surrendered in a local court on June 25, 2018. On May 16, 2018, DS Kulkarni’s niece Sai Vanjpe and her husband Kedar Vanjpe were arrested along with Dhananjay Pachpor, the chief operating officer of DSKDL.

DS Kulkarni, according to the charge sheet, had raised ₹1,083 crore through unsecured loans from the bank and financial institutions, deposits and debentures. The probe also revealed a complex web of money flow and siphoning off large sums.

The company illegally collected money from people on the pretext of deposits/loans. They lured them with irrational and unreasonable returns with the help of advertisements and agents.