DSK chief held for ‘duping’ investors
PUNE: Pune-based builder DS Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti Kulkarni were arrested from New Delhi on Saturday by the Pune police in a cheating case, a day after the Bombay high court refused to extend their interim anticipatory bail.
The two were arrested from a hotel room in the capital by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Pune police. The two are likely to be produced before a Pune local court.
“The process is underway. We will let you know the details after it (the process) is over,” deputy commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Dahane said, after being asked when the duo would be produced in a court. After the Bombay HC on Friday vacated an interim order issued on November 10 last year, restraining police from arresting the couple, the city police had dispatched teams to various places to track Kulkarni and his wife. Kulkarni, popularly known as DSK, is the chairman of the DS Kulkarni Developers Ltd. (DSKDL), flagship of the DSK group of companies. The husband and wife duo are accused of duping over 2,000 investors, who put their money in their construction business through fixed deposits, to the tune of ₹230 crore.
Around a month and a half ago, the two had assured the court that they would deposit ₹50 crore within a fortnight. However, even as they failed to do so, on February 14, the court had extended their interim anticipatory bail after Buldhana Urban Multistate Co-operative Credit Society submitted to the court, claiming to have given ₹12 crore to the DSK in lieu of his property.
However, the next day, on February 15, the EOW submitted to the court that the land in question was already mortgaged to Bank of Maharashtra.
“The Kulkarnis had taken the court for granted. They have not only cheated their investors, but also the court,” Justice Sadhana Jadhav said while vacating the interim order.
The couple was booked under IPC Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention) and Sections 3 and 4 of Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act.
They were booked on the basis of a complaint lodged by a Kothrud resident Jitendra Mulekar , alleging that the firm run by the duo duped him of over ₹4.4 lakh.
Mulekar, in his complaint, alleged that he had invested in a fixed deposit scheme with the company. But on maturity the company did not even repay the amount he deposited. Thereafter hundreds of other investors approached Shivaji Nagar police station and also lodged their individual complaints.