Pune: The Pune sessions court on Friday extended the police custody of fraud-accused city developer Deepak S. Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti to March 1.
The builder and his wife were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune police in New Delhi on February 17. However, on the first day of custody Mr. Kulkarni checked into the city’s Sassoon Hospital after developing breathing problems.
He was later moved to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital for treatment. Today he was moved back to Sassoon Hospital and the medical board said his reports were normal.
Given the delay in his police interrogation, the Special Public Prosecutor moved the court for extension of Mr. Kulkarni’s policecustody, which the court duly granted.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of India in a public notice issued earlier this week, announced it was putting up the land owned by Mr. Kulkarni in the Balewadi area for auction.
The auction is to take place on March 6 with the reserve price pegged at ₹66.39 crore. The bank’s action comes after the Mr. Kulkarni, who had mortgaged this land, turned defaulter.
The beleaguered developer, accused of cheating thousands of investors in Pune, Mumbai and Kolhapur, had earlier enlisted the sympathies of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray besides meeting Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar in Mumbai to seek a way out.
A total five of FIRs across Pune, Mumbai and Kolhapur have been lodged against the developer and his family since October 28 last year, with more than 3000 investors filing cheating complaints against Mr. Kulkarni.
