HC admits Ketan Parekh's petition in Rs 2.21 cr fraud case

Mumbai, Oct 6 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today admitted a petition filed by former Bombay Stock Exchange broker Ketan Parekh and others for discharging them from a fraud case of Punjab Sind Bank amounting to Rs 2.21 crore.

A division bench, comprising Justices V G Palshikar and Nishita Mhatre, was told that their appeal had already been rejected by a lower court on June 12, 2002.

While Ketan Parekh's company (Poise Lessing and Finance Company Limited) had an account with the Punjab Sind Bank, the other accused - Bhushan Shah - had his account with Vinkar Sahakari Bank. Shah had issued five pay orders amounting to Rs 2.21 crore to the PLFCL account on December 18, 1992.

The same day Parekh had issued cheques amounting to Rs 2.16 crore from PLFCL account to one Mayur Parekh, which were cleared by Punjab Sind Bank's senior manager Ashok Korepal. But Vinkar Sahakari Bank did not clear the pay orders issued by Shah.

Later, Vinkar Sahakari Bank dishonoured the pay orders. As a result, Punjab Sind Bank had suffered losses to the tune of Rs 2.21 crore.

Prosecution had told the court that this entire course of action was a conspiracy by the PLFCL, Shah and the managers of both the banks.

The defence counsel, however, argued that the pay orders were genuine and there was no connection between the accused. In fact, the Vinkar Sahahkari Bank which was liquidated later, had owed money to Shah while he had no liability towards them.

The counsel told the court that his clients were falsely implicated. In fact, it was the Vinkar Sahakari Bank that had owed money to Punjab Sind Bank and there was no connection with the PLFCL or Shah.

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