Nitin Desai Suicide: Bombay HC To Hear Edelweiss Officials' Plea Seeking Quashing Off FIR In Art Director's Death; Hearing On August 11

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court will hear on August 11 petitions by Edelweiss Financial Services chairman Rashesh Shah; and Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company Limited Managing Director and CEO Raj Kumar Bansal seeking quashing of the FIR registered against them for allegedly abetting suicide of renowned Indian art director Nitin Desai.

Apart from these two, Edelweiss ARC official Smit Shah, one person named Keru Mehta and Jitendra Kothari, who was appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as an interim resolution professional, have also approached the HC seeking quashing of the FIR.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for Shah, Bansal and the other two, mentioned the petitions before a division bench of Nitin Sambre and RN Laddha on Wednesday and sought urgent hearing and sought protection from coercive action against them.

Senior counsel Aabad Ponda, appearing for Kothari, informed the bench that Kothari was appointed by the NCLT and that he has “no role to play and that he was not even able to perform his duty”.

Shah and Bansal have claimed in their petitions that they had merely followed the official procedure for recovery of the loan.

The bench kept the petitions for hearing on August 11.

About Desai's Suicide

Desai, 57, Desai was found hanging at his ND Studio located in Karjat on August 2. On August 4, Desai's wife, Naina, approached the Khalapur police station to register an FIR, following which an abetment to suicide case was registered against Shah and Bansal and others.

The filmmaker’s company ND's Art World Pvt Ltd had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan repayment to creditors and the Mumbai bench of the NCLT had initiated insolvency proceedings against it. Desai took the drastic step a day after his plea was rejected by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, against the NCLT order.

Audio Clips Found By Police Prove Desai Was Facing Economic Crunch

The police have said that they have found 11 audio clips in a voice recorder at Desai’s office. In one of the voice notes, Desai criticised a financial services firm to which his company owed money, the police said. Desai also purportedly said he had walked a long road, and could not go any further. He is also heard as saying in one of these voice notes that his company could not come out of the financial crisis it was facing because of the procedure adopted by the financial services firm, the police said.

However, Edelweiss had issued a statement denying that it exerted any undue pressure on Desai for loan recovery.