Pune: The Economic and Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday submitted a labyrinthine, 36,000-page charge sheet before a special court here against prominent city-based developer Deepak S. Kulkarni, known as ‘DSK’, and his wife Hemanti who are accused of defrauding thousands of investors across Pune, Mumbai and Kolhapur.
The 36, 875- page indictment, which was transported to the courtroom in four vans, pegs the volume of the scam committed by the DSK Group at a staggering Rs. 2,043 crore.
The charge sheet was submitted in the court of special Judge J.T. Utpat by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Nilesh More, who is investigating the case.
Assets attached
Last week, the Maharashtra government had issued a notification directing authorities to attach 124 properties, 276 bank accounts and 46 vehicles belonging to the DSK Group on grounds of protecting the interests of the investors as Mr. Kulkarni was “unlikely to return their deposits”.
Both Mr. Kulkarni and his wife have been lodged at the Yerwada Central Jail since March 1.
Kin arrested
Earlier this week, EOW officials arrested three persons - including two of Mr. Kulkarni’s kin - in a cheating case registered against the developer.
Kedar Vanjape, the son-in-law of Mr. Kulkarni’s brother, his wife Sai Vanjape and Dhananjay Pachpor were apprehended for their association with the DSK group’s management when the alleged irregularities took place.
Bail rejected
Last month, a special court for Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act had rejected the regular bail applications of Mr. Kulkarni and his wife considering the magnitude of the multi-crore scam case.
Arguing against bail, Public Prosecutor Praveen Chavan had submitted that the scope Mr. Kulkarni’s scam went far beyond defrauding depositors and homebuyers and noted that despite the DSKgroup’s parlous financial condition since 2015, the conglomerate continued to collect deposits and beguile homebuyers by presenting a wrong picture of its financial health.
The DSK group had raised Rs. 2,892 crore in bank loans against his pending projects, Rs. 1,153 crore from the depositors and Rs. 470 crore from homebuyers among other borrowings without possessing the wherewithal to repay this massive credit.
Fraudulent schemes
EOW authorities are probing the two schemes under which the developer siphoned off the investors’ money.
One being DSK’s fixed deposit (FD) scheme which promised lucrative gains for depositors while the other was the developer’s Aadhi Ghar, Nantar Paise (First get the house, then pay the money) scheme in which initial deposits were taken from customers and the group then assured payment of the EMIs on the bank loans of the customers till the possession of the property was given to them.
At least five 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.
More than 8,000 persons, a majority of them senior citizens, are said to have invested in the DSKgroup’s fixed deposit (FD) scheme.
After granting him several lifelines, the Bombay High Court in February had finally quashed the interim bail plea, while noting that the developer had “repeatedly deceived the court with false assurances of repaying investors”.
The builder and his wife were finally arrested on February 17 after being detained by a team of theEconomic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune police in New Delhi and brought back to the city.
