Pune: A special court in Pune on Tuesday yet again postponed the hearing on the bail application of Ravindra Marathe, CEO and MD of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), who was arrested for allegedly violating banking norms while extending loans to fraud-accused realtor D.S. Kulkarni.
Sources said the decision was deferred after special judge R.N. Sardesai could not come to court owing to personal reasons. The final hearing on the bail plea is likely to be scheduled for Wednesday.
It is expected that the court will grant Mr. Marathe bail as special public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar on Monday said the prosecution has no problem as the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had already submitted a no-objection report regarding his relief. Mr. Marathe is in police custody till June 27.
On June 20, the EOW arrested Mr. Marathe along with former BoM CMD Sushil Muhnot, current executive director Rajendra Gupta, and zonal manager N.S. Deshpande.
Defence counsel Harshad Nimbalkar had challenged Mr. Marathe’s arrest. “The Reserve Bank’s permission to begin Mr. Marathe’s arrest procedure was mandatory…only the CBI’s anti-corruption branch is the competent agency to investigate cases which involve a public servant of a nationalised bank.”
RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, who is spearheading the fight to recover the depositors’ money, however, said there is no question of the EOW seeking the RBI’s permission to investigate the case against the BoM officials.
“The BoM officials have been charged under sections of the IPC as they have been accused of flouting banking norms while extending loans to the DSK group, who has diverted investors’ money. Do bank authorities take permission from the RBI while committing any wrongdoing?” Mr. Kumbhar asked.
