Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has granted bail to builder Gopal Amarlal Thakur of the Monarch Universal Group, who was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with a housing fraud case in Navi Mumbai.
Justice Manish Pitale granted bail to Thakur on the grounds of “long incarceration with remote possibility of the trial being completed within a reasonable period of time”. Thakur was arrested on July 1, 2021, and had undergone incarceration for a period of three years, one month and seven days until August 8, when he was granted bail.
Thakur’s Advocate Rajiv Chavan submitted that Thakur is facing predicate offences and has been granted bail in all of those cases. As far as the ED case is concerned, charges have not been framed and the record shows that the prosecution intends to examine 67 witnesses, hence it would take a long time for the trial to conclude.
The maximum imprisonment that can be imposed on Thakur, if found guilty, is seven years. Hence, he has been behind bars for about half of the maximum term of imprisonment, Chavan added.
Special Public Prosecutor Sandesh Patil opposed the bail plea contending that the plight of the persons, who have booked flats in the projects with which the applicant and the other accused are concerned, ought not to be ignored.
Patil pointed out that the FIR in one of the predicate offences was quashed following a settlement, however, Thakur and other accused resiled from the said consent terms. Hence, the offence is revived. In view of this, the conduct of the applicant ought to be taken into consideration, Patil added.
The court noted that under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act the maximum sentence that can be imposed on a person is seven years. “These facts clearly demonstrate that Thakur having undergone incarceration for a period of three years, one month and seven days, is entitled to be released purely on the ground of long incarceration with remote possibility of the trial being completed within a reasonable period of time,” Justice Pitale said while granting him bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000.
According to ED, Thakur diverted and siphoned off huge amounts of money, collected from investors, to its various sister entities. Through a complex web of money trail, parked substantial Proceeds of Crime (PoC) with various builders of Navi Mumbai, namely Baba Homes Builders and Developers, Lakhani Builders Private Limited, Monarch Solitaire LLP and others. Probe revealed that Monarch Group and its directors sold the same flats to multiple buyers. They took loans from the NBFC by mortgaging the already sold flats without the knowledge of the customers.
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