HC grants interim relief to BJP leader Pravin Darekar in Mumbai Bank case

The Bombay High Court on Thursday restrained the city polices Economic Offences Wing EOW from taking any coercive action against BJP MLA Pravin Darekar till December 2 in the Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd scam case.Darekar is currently the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council.A single bench of Justice S K Shinde restrained the EOW while hearing Darekars plea challenging the sessions courts order that had refused him relief last month.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday restrained the city police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) from taking any coercive action against BJP MLA Pravin Darekar till December 2 in the Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd scam case.

Darekar is currently the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council.

A single bench of Justice S K Shinde restrained the EOW while hearing Darekar's plea challenging the sessions court's order that had refused him relief last month. Darekar sought a stay on further investigation in the case till his petition was decided upon finally by the high court. The high court on Thursday also asked the EOW's prosecutor Prakash Shetty to get instructions on Darekar's plea.

The initial complaint against Darekar in the case was filed in 2015 by BJP member and lawyer Vivekanand Gupta. As per Gupta's complaint, Darekar, former chairperson of the Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd, popularly known as Mumbai Bank, made risky investments on behalf of the bank, allegedly embezzled funds and committed fraud during his tenure, causing loses to the bank to the tune of over Rs 120 crore. Based on the complaint, the Mumbai EOW initiated a probe and subsequently filed a 'C summary report' before a local court in 2018 seeking to close the case.

However, a protest petition was then filed by one Pankaj Kotecha stating that the EOW had failed to take a similar complaint filed by him in 2014 against Darekar and some others into consideration during its probe. He sought further probe. On June 16, 2021, a magistrate's court in the city rejected the EOW's closure report and directed it to conduct further investigation. However, Darekar challenged this order before the sessions court, which rejected his plea on October 5, 2021.

Following that, Darekar had approached the high court, contending that the sessions court's order was illegal, arbitrary, and wrong in law.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)