BJP leader Pravin Darekar. (File photo) The MRA Marg police have summoned BJP leader and member of Maharashtra Legislative Council Pravin Darekar for questioning on Monday in a bank fraud case.
According to the police, the case was registered on March 14 on the complaint of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Dhananjay Shinde who alleged that Darekar had cheated the government and the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank by posing as a labourer and contesting the bank’s election for the director’s post under the labour category.
A senior police officer, confirming the development, said: “We have asked him (Darekar) to report to the police station on Monday. We have gathered certain evidence against the BJP leader and it is necessary to question and to understand his version on the same due to which he has been summoned.”
Shinde in his complaint to the police alleged that Darekar had served as the president of the bank for many years. Early in 1997, he registered himself as a labourer in the Pratidnya Labour Cooperative Society and subsequently got registered in the bank, Shinde alleged. Darekar has been contesting elections for the post of director’s post under the labour category since, Shinde complained.
“As per the bylaws of the labour cooperative societies, membership is granted to a labourer… a person who is a manual labourer,” said Shinde in the complaint. The police said Darekar allegedly forged documents to prove that he is a labourer, based on which he contested elections from the labour category.
After the matter came to light, an inquiry was ordered by the state cooperation department, which came across a few entries in the records of Pratidnya Labour Cooperative Society showing that Darekar worked as a labourer for 30 days in April 2017, Shinde’s statement said.
The case against Darekar was registered under sections 199 (false statement made in declaration which is by law receivable as evidence), 200 (using as true such declaration knowing it to be false), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 417 (punishment for cheating), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 120 (B) (conspiracy) of The Indian Penal Code, said the police.
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