The Bombay High Court today observed that Pune-based builder D S Kulkarni, who is facing cases for allegedly cheating investors, has failed to keep his promise to deposit at least Rs 50 crore with the court.Kulkarni, a prominent builder, and his wife Hemanti were booked by the Pune Police last year for allegedly cheating over 2,500 investors to the tune of Rs 230 crore.
The couple approached the high court seeking pre-arrest bail in December. The court granted them an interim protection from arrest after they assured they would deposit Rs 50 crore within a fortnight.Kulkarni’s lawyer Ashok Mundargi told the court today a sum of Rs 12 crore has been arranged, and that Buldana Urban Multistate Co-operative Credit Society has agreed to loan them Rs 100 crore within a week.To this, Justice Sadhana Jadhav said, “I was waiting for Rs 50 crore to be deposited.
I gave the applicants over three weeks’ time to deposit. Now I will not accept any more assurance.”Your assurances have fallen flat. You do not have a single penny in your pocket and even you know this,” she said.As directed by the court at the earlier hearing, Kulkarni and his wife appeared before the court today.The court posted the matter for further hearing on February 22 when it would pass order on the couple’s anticipatory bail applications.Cases of cheating were registered by the Economic Offences Wing of Pune police after investors complained that Kulkarnis’ firm, which had floated a fixed deposit scheme, was neither paying them interest nor returning the principal amount.
