Pune EOW will close case due to lack of evidence
MUMBAI : The economic offences wing (EOW) of Pune police has decided to close the case related to the alleged embezzlement of crores of rupees from Osho International Foundation on the basis of the purportedly fabricated will of Osho Rajneesh.
Assistant public prosecutor Sangita Shinde on Thursday told the Bombay high court (HC) that the EOW has filed a C-summary report on September 27, 2018, seeking closure of the case. A C-summary report seeks to close a case as the police, after investigation, cannot reach a definite conclusion.
Shinde was responding to a petition filed by Yogesh Thakkar, an ardent follower of Osho. The Pune resident had complained that although the Koregaon Park police station has registered an offence on the basis of his complaint, no steps were taken to probe the allegations. Thakkar had alleged that the will,which surfaced 23 years after Osho’s death, was subjected to a forensic analysis by a number of devotees and found to be fake. He alleged that six purported beneficiaries of the will — Michael Byrne, D’arcy Byrne, Philip Toelkes, Dr John Andrews, Mukesh Sarda and Llaus Steeg — were siphoning off money from Osho International Foundation via a web of private firms they had set up.
Shinde however said Thakkar and some of the interveners, who supported him, now have the remedy of filing a protest petition before the judicial magistrate, in whose court the C-summary report is filed, to oppose closure of the case. A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre disposed of the petition in view of the filing of the C-summary report.
The bench also disposed of another petition filed by Thakkar, seeking a direction to the EOW of Mumbai police to register an offence against four trustees for embezzling funds of the trust to private entities, in view of the alternate remedy available to the petitioner – to approach the metropolitan magistrate concerned and lodge a private complaint.
On February 7, Thakkar had filed a separate complaint with the EOW, Mumbai. The EOW, Mumbai, has however expressed inability to register an offence on the grounds that the complaint does not disclose commission of any cognisable offence and has intimated their decision to the petitioner. Thakkar’s counsel, Anil Anturkar, insisted the complaint ex-facie disclosed commission of a cognisable offence and therefore, the police were dutybound to register an offence.