PUNE SESSION COURT REJECTED THE BAIL PLEA OF HEMANTI, A DIRECTOR AT DSK DEVELOPERS 

The sessions court rejected the bail application of Deepak Kulkarni’s wife, Hemanti, one of the directors at DSK Developers Limited. The Court observed ‘the accused collected value-added tax (VAT) amount in crores but did not deposit it with the treasury for more than nine years. 

The accused was booked for not depositing the VAT amount collected during seeling of new flats in the state treasury. She has been accused of duping the government to the tune of Rs 13.06 crore. She sought bail before sessions judge VD Nimbalkar on the ground that she is a 60-year-old woman and has been in prison for more than three years. 

The defense lawyer informed the Court that properties worth over Rs 1,000 crore have already been seized and sealed by the prosecution, and hence, the accused is incapable of paying the amount. He argued that in 2016, Kulkarni met with an accident, and it was said that he will not survive. Therefore, the investors registered a complaint under IPC and MPID against the accused. He further contended that the charge sheet is yet to be filed, and therefore, the accused is entitled to be released on bail.

Additional public prosecutor Chandrakiran Salvi argued that the accused recovered the VAT from flat purchasers from 2006 to 2007 and 2008 to 2009. The accused had sufficient time to deposit the collected VAT amount to the treasury till the filing of other crimes. 

The sessions court observed that prima facie, the accused committed an offense of cheating under IPC, which is punishable up to life imprisonment. Such punishment is not provided under MPID Act, in which bail is granted to the accused. Therefore, only because the crime was registered in 2017 under MPID Act and the properties were seized cannot be considered a valid ground for bail.

Author: Papiha Ghoshal