SC gives Ketan Parekh visa for UK visit

Mumbai stock broker Ketan Parekh, convicted in a securities scam, has been allowed by the Supreme Court to visit London for the treatment of one of his daughters even though CBI lawyer Ashok Bhan raised doubts at his frequent foreign trips saying “they are being used to manage millions of ill-gotten wealth stashed in a bank there”.

Parekh’s lawyer Kamini Jaiswal  said in October last year the top court had allowed  him to travel to UK for medical treatment of his daughter, who is in London now.

He would also attend the graduation ceremony of his another daughter, Jaiswal said.

Vehemently  opposing the plea for travel abroad by a convict whose appeal against the  sentence is ending in the high court, Bhan recalled Parekh is charged with denuding public money to the tune of Rs1,030 crore.

Of this, he deposited £6.4 million (Rs55 crore) in the account of Elliot Holdings at the London branch of a Swiss bank.

Bhan said relatives of Parekh and his close aide Dharmesh Doshi are the beneficiaries of the bank account.

It was also pointed that Parekh had, during the period of bail, travelled abroad twice with the same motive — to manage his accounts in different banks there.

He had tried to seek the permission to travel to the UAE and Indonesia too.

However, a bench of Justices TS Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra  allowed Parekh to visit the UK for two months, but with a strong rider that he “shall furnish his itinerary to this court as also to the UK High Commission before his departure from India”.