Former Managing Director M. Sasidharan of security services firm TOPSGRUP was on Thursday denied bail by a special court in connection with a money laundering case in which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had recently summoned Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik for questioning.
Last week, the special court designated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had denied bail in the same case to Sarnaik’s close associate Amit Chandole too, who was the first to be arrested in it.
Appearing for 70-year-old Sasidharan, advocate Sujit Shelar had argued that the contract with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has existed since 2014 and that Sasidharan was at the position of the director only since 2018-’19. Further, Shelar had pointed out that from statements of some witnesses, apparently there were malpractices since the inception of the contract, but Sasidharan appears to have been made a scapegoat by the ED for not naming people it wants to implead. Further, the court was informed that payments were sanctioned by the Chief Financial Officer and there were a number of people Sasidharan was reporting to. There are two-three people of senior management who have not been made accused by the ED, advocate Shelar told the court. A person to whose account the amounts were sent has not been made an accused, if he has helped in the alleged money laundering, advocate Shelar had argued.
Special Public Prosecutor for the ED Kavita Patil had opposed the bail application and told the court that Sasidharan was part of the conspiracy and had assisted in the diversion of funds.
Sasidharan was the second arrest in the 175 crore money laundering case in which the security firm is alleged to have cheated MMRDA by short-staffing the latter but billing it for more guards.
