7 directors of co-op federation granted bail

Additional sessions judge Vinay Joshi on Wednesday granted ad-interim anticipatory bail to seven of the 34 directors of the Maharashtra State Cooperatives Federation (MSCF) who have been accused of criminal breach of trust and cheating in transaction of two plots of land estimated to be worth over Rs23.89 crore.

The directors have been directed by the judge to furnish a surety of Rs30,000 each.

The government auditor had filed a case against the federation directors at Bund Garden police station on Sunday. Of the 34 directors, seven had submitted bail applications through their lawyer Milind Pawar, Amol Navadkar and Abhijeet Virajdhar. All seven have been granted ad-interim anticipatory bail till September 20. These seven directors include Shivajirao Vishnu Nalawade (59) from Ghatkopar in Mumbai, Dnyaneshwar Namdev Mahajan (55) from Ghatkopar in Mumbai, Chandrakant Pandurang Kale (67) from Ghatkopar in Mumbai, Dnyaneshwar Raoshaheb Wangade (55) from Girgaum in Mumbai, Jayshree Soma Panchal (42) from Goregaon in Mumbai, Anil Dattatray Gajare (39) from Koliwada Majid in Mumbai and Mahin Ramchandra Kadam (57) from Boriwali, Mumbai.

Their lawyers had argued that the seven directors had been implicated. The lawyers alleged that the auditor had filed the case under his superiors’ pressure although the matter is already pending in the Bombay High Court.

The land was given to M/s Bharuka Associates on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis in 2010-11. Special auditor Prakash Ramchandra Ghodke (52), who carried out an audit of the federation’s accounts, had filed the complaint naming 34 federation directors including two women, M/s Bharuka Associates and its project consultant Ketal Patel.

The lands in question, one admeasuring 6,889 sq metres and the other admeasuring 74,168 sq metres, are located at Ghorpadi.