Court adjourns Shah's bail hearing till tomorrow

Mumbai, May 28 (UNI) A local court today adjourned the final hearing on the anticipatory bail application (ABA) moved by estate agent Chandresh Shah, over his alleged involvement in the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) case, in which Haseena Parkar, sister of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, is also involved.

When the matter came up before Additional Sessions Court Judge P V Bavkar for the confirmation of the ABA, Additional Public Prosecutor Mohan Sawant sought time to go through the documents before the final hearing.

Judge Bavkar has granted time and adjourned the matter till tomorrow.

On May 17, City Civil and Sessions Court Principal Judge Ashok Bhangle had granted interim relief to Shah till today, with a directive to appear before the investigating agency for recording of his statement and then be present before the regular court for final hearing on the application. He is allegedly facing charges under extortion, cheating and forgery.

The police have arrested four persons Krishanmilan Shukla, Sandeep Shukla, Shamim Qureshi and Salim Sayyed in this connection.

Krishanmilan and Sandeep are Ms Parkar's bodyguards, while the latter two are her drivers.

It may be recalled that Vinod Pranlal Avlani, a real estate developer and builder, in a complaint to the crime branch in December last year, had accused eight persons, including Parkar and Sandeep Shukla, of cheating him of Rs 30 lakh after the failure of the SRA project.

On April 12, the ACB arrested a tout named Chandresh Shah while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh. He claimed that he was working at the behest of a senior Crime Branch official.

This led the ACB to raid the Crime Branch's Unit-I office. The ACB had earlier recorded several conversations between Shukla, Chandresh and one Raju, who too claimed to be a tout of the Crime Branch Unit-I.

Shukla, who needed Rs two crore for his SRA projects in Antop hill, Nirmal Nagar and Wadala, was introduced to Avlani by Shah.

Avlani agreed to pay Shukla Rs two crore in return for a 51 per cent partnership in the projects.

Avlani paid Shukla Rs 30 lakh in the presence of Ms Parkar and made her a guarantor for the money. However, the SRA project failed to materialise and therefore, Avlani demanded his Rs 30 lakh back.

When Avlani lodged a complaint with the crime branch, Shukla approached the ACB with a complaint that officers of Crime Branch Unit-I were seeking favours from him in the case.

UNI