Bombay High Court grants bail to Pune builder Avinash Bhosale

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Punebased builder Avinash Bhosale in a moneylaundering case noting that at the end of the trial he may not be found guilty of the offence he is being prosecuted forBhosale chairman and founder of ABIL Group was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in June 2022 He had been initially arrested by the CBI in a corruption case and obtained bail from the high court in that case in MayJustice Manish Pitale on Wednesday granted Bhosale bail in the ED case on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakhldquoThere are reasonable grounds to believe that the applicant Bhosale is not guilty of the offences for which he is being prosecuted The applicant is already granted bail in the predicate offence registered by the CBIrdquo Justice Pitale saidAccording to the ED Bhosale received kickbacks from Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor also an accused in the case in return for diverting fundsYes Bank under Rana Kapoor had disbursed Rs 3983 crore to Deewan Housing Finance Limited DHFL which were proceeds of crimeOf this amount DHFL sanctioned and disbursed loans aggregating to Rs 2420 crore to three group concerns of Radius Group headed by Sanjay Chhabria also an accused in the caseBhosale allegedly received Rs 350 crore kickbacks from Radius group for facilitating loans from DHFL in the form of consultancy services payments ED allegedED has relied on three major transactions between Bhosalersquos companies and DHFL and Radius groupBhosale in his bail plea however contended that the allegations were misconceived and these were all legitimate business transactions and returns on investments made in 20142015His counsel Aabad Ponda also raised the grounds of prolonged incarceration and the fact that trial would take some time to concludeED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said there was sufficient material to make out a strong prima facie case to show that Bhosale was beneficiary of proceeds of crimeThe high court however noted that the transactions showed that amounts were being returned pursuant to investments made by Bhosale in 201415 and as per mutually agreed covenantsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever