The Bombay High Court on Tuesday rejected bail application of Builder Deepak Kulkarni (74) of the DSK Developers who was arrested in 2018 for allegedly duping investors to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore.

Justice PD Naik has granted bail to his wife, Hemanti, who is also an accused in the case.

Kulkarni and his wife were arrested on February 17, 2018 for allegedly duping over 32,000 investors to the tune of Rs 2,043 crore. They were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act [MPID Act].

Savivek Srivastav, Deepak Kulkarni’s advocate, said that they will be approaching the Supreme Court against the HC order rejecting the septuagenarian’s bail.

During the hearing early this month, Aashuutosh Srivastava, advocate for Kulkarnis, had argued that they have been in prison since arrest and the trial has not commenced as yet. “Considering the age of the applicant (Kulkarni), he should be granted bail especially in view of this pandemic,” argued Srivastava.

The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) had filed chargesheet in the case in May 2018 before the special court under the MPID. Even the supplementary chargesheet was filed in August 2918. However, the charges have not been framed and trial has also not commenced.

“The MPID court rejected Kulkarni’s bail application in November 2019 stating that the trial was to commence as soon as possible and hence there was no need to release him on bail,” argued Srivastava.

Besides, Srivastava also pointed out that according to the EOW, Kulkarni had to repay Rs 2,081 crore to investors. Of this, Rs 1,997 crore has already been repaid.

Public prosecutor had opposed the bail plea saying that there was misappropriation of funds to the tune of over Rs 2,000 crore. Also, false affidavit was filed saying that the money will be coming from Singapore, which never happened. This was cheating the investors.

The prosecutor said that the MPID court will soon be framing charges. “There was delay as the special judge was hospitalised due to Covid,” said the prosecutor.

The prosecution will be examining maximum 17 witnesses of the list of 23 witnesses submitted before the MPID court.