Pune: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, has come out in support of city-based developer Deepak S. Kulkarni who is accused of defrauding thousands of investors in Pune, Mumbai and Kolhapur.
Speaking in Pune after meeting some of the aggrieved investors on Friday, Mr. Thackeray said that the developer “was no cheat” and urged depositors to have faith in him. “He [D.S. Kulkarni] is not going to swindle any investor of his money. This is the time that the Marathi manoos (Maharashtrian people) ought to come forward to help DSK out of his financial quagmire and support him,” urged Mr. Thackeray.
Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court continued the interim protection from arrest granted to Mr. Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti, posting the hearing for November 30. On Thursday, Mr. Kulkarni’s lawyer said in court that his client would sell some of his properties to return the depositors’ money, but that he required some more time.
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The builder also made a surprise appearance before the press to reassure investors that all their money would be returned. Mr. Kulkarni has said the total assets of the DSK group stood at ₹10,000 crore, which was more than enough to repay what he owed depositors who had invested in the fixed deposit (FD) scheme of his company. He also said that the FD scheme had been successfully running for the past three decades and that he had managed to repay all his investors during this time.
FIR no. 5
Meanwhile, another FIR — the fifth against Mr. Kulkarni since October 28 — was registered by the Shivajinagar police on Thursday. The FIR, under Sections 406 (Criminal Breach of Trust), 420 (Cheating) and 120 (b) [criminal conspiracy] of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), also named his wife Hemanti and son Shirish.
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This FIR has been lodged on a complaint by a consumer Santosh Honkarpe, who had booked two flats in the DSK Anandghan project in 2013 and was to get possession of these by 2016.
However, on seeing that the construction was not progressing at all, he, along with other customers, decided to lodge a case against Mr. Kulkarni. “He [D.S. Kulkarni] assured us that work would begin soon…however, there was no progress. Needless to say, we have invested a lot in these flats,” said Mr. Honkarpe.
Last week, a fourth FIR was lodged against Mr. Kulkarni and four of his managers at the Shivajinagar police station here for non-payment of provident fund (PF) to his employees. More than 8,000 persons, a majority of them senior citizens, have invested in the DSK group’s fixed deposit (FD) scheme. For the last several months, many have been queuing outside DSK group offices to retrieve their money.
More than 3,000 investors have lodged complaints against the builder so far.