No bail for Rs 400 crore scamsters'

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has rejected the anticipatory bail application of two women directors of a real estate firm who were found to be involved in a Rs 400 crore real estate scam. The court upheld the state’s stand that the crime was of a serious nature as the directors had duped thousands of investors and should not be granted ABA. This is the second such instance after another Pune-based firm, DSK developers, had failed to pay back investors recently.

A bench of justice A. Gadkari was hearing the application made by Deepa and Vanita Sajnani, co-directors of the Temple Rose Real Estate Pvt Ltd along with the main accused Devidas Sajnani who allegedly conned around 7,000 investors of Rs 400 crore over four years, from 2013 to 2017. The application prayed for anticipatory bail on the grounds that they were women. Senior advocate Harshad Ponda pleaded the application on behalf of the Sajnani’s.  

The Sajnani’s had floated the firm and invited investors from Mumbai, Raigad, Thane and Pune to buy agricultural land. The firm had promised huge profits on sale of the land or returning double the invested amount in four years. Later, under the name of another firm they sold the same land as non-agricultural land.

When an investor got wind of the same, he lodged a complaint. The Pune police and the economic offence wing registered an FIR against the Sajnani’s under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Maharashtra Prevention of Investment and Debt (MIPD) Act.    

Objecting to the anticipatory bail application, advocate for the state, Rutuja Ambekar said that due to the gravity of the crime regardless of the accused being women they should not be granted anticipatory bail.

While rejecting the anticipatory bail application, the court asked the applicants whether they were willing to surrender to the police. However, in the absence of the applicants, their advocate,  Mr Ponda could not give any commitment regarding the same.