Court refuses bail to BJP leader arrested in

MUMBAI: A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court on Monday rejected the bail application of Satara-based BJP leader Digambar Rohidas Agawane, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier this year in a ₹12.8 crore money laundering case. The court rejected his bail plea, observing that Agawane was involved in generating, siphoning and layering the proceeds of crime.
The court, while rejecting the bail plea, observed, “The money trail which is shown in the chargesheet, along with the documents, goes to show that from all such activities, the accused has benefitted and generated proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹12.8 crore.”
Agawane was allegedly involved in multiple fraud cases and has over 12 FIRs registered against him. The ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on the 12 FIRs and initiated the money laundering proceedings. In the cases, Agawane has been accused of generating, siphoning, layering and parking proceeds of crime amounting to ₹12.8 crore.
The BJP leader allegedly ran various fraudulent schemes through which he lured individuals to invest in his company, Ayur Urban Multipurpose Nidhi Limited, with the promise of high returns but failed to do so, thus cheating the investors. He was also involved in procuring loans through fraudulent ways by giving false promises to individuals by making them directors of dummy companies. He allegedly took loans in the name of these directors and diverted the said amount to Ayur Urban Ltd.
He allegedly made false promises to the complainant, made him a director, and siphoned off the loan amount taken in the complainant’s name, as per one of the FIRs registered against him. He is also alleged to have double-mortgaged properties with various financial institutions and, also, mortgaged disputed properties to acquire loans.
The court noted, “It prima facie appears that applicant/accused is in a habit of offering persons to become directors of the company, launching a new company, then taking loan in the name of that company by using properties of said person and diverting part of loan amount to his account or in the account of his relatives or company.”
Agawane’s advocate submitted that there were no proceeds of crime involved in the registered FIRs, so ECIR should not have been registered. “Except for statement of bank authorities who were the informants in the original FIR, there is no material with the investigating officer which shows that the loans were fraudulently availed”, stated the defense. Further, they noted that the FIRs were registered due to Agawane’s differences with sitting MP Ranjitsingh Naik Nimbalkar, who allegedly enjoys great political clout.
The court observed that Agawane used to appoint dummy directors for taking loans in the name of entities such as JD Chemicals and Fertilizer Pvt Ltd and Namnil Trading LLP, against which loans of ₹2.75 crore and ₹2.55 crore were taken. “The directors were promised double or triple returns within a year which was never given”, special judge AC Daga said while rejecting Agawane’s plea.