A sessions court has denied permission to Bassein Catholic Cooperative Bank Limited which had approached it for the custody of Nalasopara arms haul accused Vaibhav Raut’s car, to sell the vehicle, as it is a collateral in a loan in which Raut has defaulted.
The bank had sought the vehicle's custody and also permission to sell it to recover the outstanding amount. The car however, had been seized by the investigation agency as it was allegedly used to transport weapons. The court had earlier temporarily returned the car to Raut upon an application by him.
The bank said in its plea that the trial would take time and by that time, the value of the vehicle would diminish and hence sought permission to sell it. Special Public Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves had opposed the plea stating that the car had already been returned temporarily to Raut who is the registered owner and that it would be required during the trial.
Additional Sessions Judge DE Kothalikar noted in his order that although the vehicle is a secured asset, it has been seized in a criminal case and therefore, at this juncture it would not be proper to hand it over to the custody of the bank. The order also said that had it been the case that the property was subject to speedy and natural decay, such an order could be passed, but that is not the case with the car.
“…the applicant is at liberty to recover the loan by adopting other modes…it is not the case that the applicant cannot move against other movable or immovable properties of the respondent,” the judge Kothalikar, while declining the plea.
Raut, who ran a cow-protection outfit, is an accused along with eleven others in the 2018 Nalasopara Arms haul case in which crude bombs and materials used to make explosives had been seized from his home in Nalasopara. The accused are alleged to be right-wingers motivated by the idea of a Hindu Rashtra and had planned attacks on people and events they perceived as against Hindu dharma.
