3 Maharashtra govt officials accused of cheating, forgery granted bail by SC

The Supreme Court has granted anticipatory bail to three senior Maharashtra Government officials, including the former Managing Director (MD) of Denotified Tribes and Nomadic Tribes Development Corporation (Limited), Mumbai, Ramesh Vasantrao Bansod, who is accused of cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation. A division bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and also comprising Justice KM Joseph, directed the Maharashtra Government not to arrest the three individuals until further hearing in the case. It, however, directed the accused persons to cooperate in the investigation.

"Issue notice to the Maharashtra Government. The accused persons shall not be arrested till further order of this court. Meanwhile, the accused persons have to cooperate with the investigation," the court said in its recent order. Alakh Alok Srivastava, who appeared on behalf of the three accused, submitted to the apex court that an instant FIR was lodged to defame his client.

The Maharashtra High Court judgement by not providing the bail was erroneous and it should be set aside, he had said earlier. Bansod, who was formerly working as the MD of DTNTDC Mumbai, has been accused of forgery, cheating, and misappropriation of funds in July last year, charges which he has denied.

Srivastava, in his petition, also claimed that his clients are innocent in the case and they had nothing to do with disbursal of any amount in any manner. "He (Bansod) and other accused are innocent in the case," he said and expressed happiness over the grant of anticipatory bail to his clients.

(With inputs from agencies.)