The Supreme Court on Monday granted interim bail on
medical grounds to former chairman of a Pune-based cooperative bank in a case
linked to alleged fraud and misappropriation of funds of the lender worth Rs
429 crore.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and
Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra gave relief to Amar Sadhuram
Mulchandani, the ex-chairman of the Seva Vikas Cooperative Bank, after taking
note of his medical condition.
The
top court perused a report filed by a board of four expert doctors of the J J
Hospital, Mumbai.
It also took into account that Mulchandani has been
inside jail for over an year.
The money laundering probe against Mulchandani, who
was arrested on July 1 last year, and others stems from multiple FIRs
registered by the Pune Police on the basis of complaints of the bank and the
audit conducted by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies which pointed to
large-scale fraud and misappropriation of public funds causing a loss of Rs 429
crore to the Seva Vikas Cooperative Bank causing loss to thousands of small
depositors.
The bank was "being run like a family
proprietorship by Amar Mulchandani without following any prudent banking norms
and favoured loans were sanctioned in return of massive kickbacks, the ED had
said.
According
to the agency, more than 92 per cent of the loan accounts had turned into NPA
which ultimately led to the collapse of the bank and the RBI later cancelled
the license of the bank.
Mulchandani and five of his family members were
earlier arrested by the Maharashtra Police for obstructing an ED raid conducted
against the former bank chairman on January 27 and for alleged destruction of
evidence.
Assets worth Rs 122.35 crore, including some benami
properties of Mulchandani, were also provisionally attached by the agency
earlier.