Nitin Desai death case: No interim relief to Edelweiss officials

The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to pass any order granting urgent interim reliefs to Edelweiss company officials accused of abetting the suicide of renowned film art director Nitin Desai and said it would hear their pleas against the FIR on August 18 reported news agency PTIA division bench of Justices N W Sambre and R N Laddha also issued a notice to Desais wife who is the complainant in the Nitin Desai death caseSenior counsel Amit Desai appearing for Edelweiss Financial Services Chairman Rashesh Shah Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Companys MD and CEO Raj Kumar Bansal and two other company officials urged the court to grant them interim protection from any coercive action and also sought quashing of the first information report FIR registered against them reported PTIPublic prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai told the court that the FIR in the Nitin Desai death case was registered only last week and that the probe in the case was still on reported PTIThe bench then said it would hear the petitions on August 18Wait for a week We will hear the matter on August 18 and consider the interim orders sought the court saidApart from the Edelweiss officials Jitender Kothari who was appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal NCLT as an interim resolution professional had also moved the high court seeking for the FIR to be quashedAll the petitions sought interim protection from the HCDesai 57 who had worked for acclaimed Bollywood films such as Lagaan and Jodhaa Akbar was found hanging at his studio at Karjat in Maharashtras Raigad district on August 2 On August 4 Desais wife approached the Khalapur police station seeking registration of an FIR into his deathFollowing this an abetment to suicide case was registered against Shah and Bansal The FIR was also registered against Kothari and two others under Indian Penal Code sections 306 abetment of suicide and 34 common intentionDesais company NDs Art World Pvt Ltd had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan repayment to creditors and the Mumbai bench of the NCLT had initiated insolvency proceedings against itEdelweiss ARC in a statement had denied that any undue pressure was put on Desai for loan recoveryThe Raigad police who are conducting an investigation into Desais death have found 11 audio clips in a voice recorder at the art directors office an official said last weekIn one of the voice notes found after his alleged suicide Desai criticised a financial services firm to which his company owed money the police saidDesai also purportedly said he had walked a long road and could not go any furtherIn one of these clips or voice notes he was heard saying his company could not come out of the financial crisis it was facing because of the procedure adopted by the financial services firm the police saidShah and Bansal in their pleas claimed they had merely followed the official procedure for recoveryWith inputs from PTI