The Mumbai Sessions Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council Pravin Darekar in a case registered against him by the Mumbai Police.
Additional Sessions Judge Rahul Rokade has granted him interim protection from arrest till Monday. The state government has sought time to file a reply on his anticipatory bail plea.
The MRA Marg police in Mumbai had on March 15 registered a case against Darekar on a complaint by Aam Aadmi Party leader Dhananjay Shinde. Dhananjay Shinde alleged that Darekar himself is neither a laborer nor a labor contractor, but through the working class he contested for the post of director in Mumbai Bank for 20 years.
In his statement to the police, Shinde alleged, “During his tenure, there was a fraud in Mumbai Bank and the cooperative department of the state government also found material indicating fraud during an audit.”
Shinde alleged that Darekar got himself registered as a laborer in 1997. Later, in 2009, he contested the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ticket and won the election. Shine claimed that in his nomination papers he declared that he was in a private business and declared assets of more than Rs 2 crore.
Acting on the complaint, the police booked Darekar under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 200 (declaring him to be true despite being false), 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 ( Punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating).
Anticipating arrest, Darekar had filed an anticipatory bail plea through advocate Akhilesh Choubey.
In his petition, the BJP leader said, “As the statement of the complainant itself suggests that the present applicant had become a member of Shramik Samaj in 1997. It should be noted that in 1997, I was neither an MLA nor I had any business I was living in a slum in Dahisar East and was a laborer and hence became a member of PLCS.This whole complaint is about becoming the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Parishad.It is accepted that the applicant has to be submitted on 14th December, 2021. Till date not a single notice had been issued regarding his membership as a labourer.”
It said that as soon as he received the show cause notice from the competent authority, he immediately resigned as the director of the Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank. He claimed that he had not taken any wrongful advantage by indulging in any misconduct alleged by the informer earlier.
He further said that due to his revelations in the House, two ministers Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik were arrested and hence the state government deliberately filed this FIR. His plea said that one of the allegations of irregularities in the FIR has been thoroughly investigated and a closure has already been filed in it.