Loan fraud case: Court rejects CBI plea for AIIMS medical board examination of realtor Avinash Bhosale

Representational Pic

A special court on Wednesday rejected a CBI plea seeking constitution of a medical board by New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to assess the health of builder Avinash Bhosale, an accused in the Yes Bank-DHFL loan fraud case who is currently under judicial custody and hospitalized.

Bhosale was arrested on May 26 last year by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) later took his custody in a money laundering case. The Pune-based real estate developer is in judicial custody and admitted in a Mumbai hospital since October.

Special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court Judge MG Deshpande, while rejecting the probe agency's plea, directed the state-run JJ Hospital and doctors to immediately conduct various medical tests on the accused.

The court asked the hospital to finish Bhosale's medical tests within three days from the date of receipt of this order by and thereafter, immediately discharge him to resume jail custody.

The judge said the hospital and doctors shall further fix the proposed schedule of the treatment, care to be followed and taken by the accused in jail so that his hospitalization is not required again.

The doctors shall clearly suggest a schedule for precautions, care and food to be taken by Bhosale in jail in order to continue his judicial custody, it said.

The court said the Dean of J J Group of Hospitals and the doctors shall also prescribe him proper medication and follow ups if any.

In its plea, the CBI had prayed to the court to direct the AIIMS, New Delhi, to constitute a medical board to examine the accused. The central agency had raised doubts over the illness and hospitalization of Bhosale.

The probe agency had claimed the opinion given by doctors at J J Hospital and its medical board was "managed" for adjusting further hospitalization of the accused.

Also Read: Air India pee-gate: Shankar Mishra moves bail in Sessions Court

However, the court said it couldn't give direction to any government medical authorities beyond its jurisdiction, completely ignoring or prejudging that the report filed by a medical board headed by the JJ Hospital dean, is "fake, incorrect and given by favouring the accused".

Prima facie there is nothing to point out any contrary to the said report of the medical board, except bare allegations made by the CBI, the court said.

The judge noted that just a day before the filing of the application on January 11, the court on its own referred some points to the ED, probing a related case, regarding health issues of the realtor.

It is therefore clear the court itself took notice of the long hospitalization and illness of Bhosale and found it necessary to seek a report from the (JJ Hospital) dean, the special judge said.

As per the CBI, Bhosale, an autorickshaw driver-turned realtor, allegedly received kickbacks of more than Rs 360 crore as middleman for facilitating loans from DHFL (Dewan Housing Finance Corporation), which turned into non-performing assets (NPAs).

The CBI has said it found two payments of Rs 68.8 crore and Rs 292 crore to Bhosale's companies made by Radius Developers, whose owner Sanjay Chhabaria was recently arrested in the case.

The central agency, after the arrest of Bhosale, had said Yes Bank under its co-founder Rana Kapoor had disbursed Rs 3,983 crore to DHFL, which were proceeds of crime.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever