The Bombay High Court has rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of 1992 batch IAS officer Ashutosh Kumar and co-accused Sanjay Pandey, accused of duping several investors of over Rs5.5 crore.
“Custodial interrogation of the applicants Ashutosh Kumar and Sanjay Pandey appears to be indispensable for a fair and effective investigation,’’ said Justice N Jamadar on December 18.
The court, however, granted pre-arrest bail to Monica Kumar, Kumar’s wife, observing that she had no role in inducing investors or when money was delivered.
Accused assured investors of good profits
Kumar and Pandey are accused of inducing five persons to part with Rs 5.5 crore under the guise of investing in various projects of SRA/Mhada and other private projects. They in turn assured good profits.
The HC noted that the two, and other accused, were present and they collected and counted the cash amount.
Kumar contended that at present, is posted as a regional director of the Plastics Export Promotion Council in northern India. Pandey is a director of the LFS group of companies.
An FIR was registered against Kumar, Monica and Pandey by one Rajkumar Dadhich alleging that Kumar represented himself as a senior IAS officer and his wife, a director along with him in LFS Global Pvt Ltd, which purportedly was handling development projects and financing film projects.
They are all booked under the provisions of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 1999.
