Bombay HC grants interim bail to student for exam in Malad slum scheme scam – Times of India

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday granted interim bail for three days for examinations to a postgraduate student in custody since last month in a cheating case where he is alleged to have impersonated on the phone, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) chief.
The Malad police had recently registered a case against several persons for offences of cheating and forgery in a scam where the accused duped hundreds by posing as SRA staff promising rehabilitation homes in a slum scheme after taking large sums and creating a fake annexure of a slum.
The C-DAC Examinations are to be held from April 5 to April 7 said the 26-year-old student’s lawyers Afin Pathan and Rafiq Gori while seeking temporary bail before Justice Anuja Prabhudessai.
His lawyers said just because his number was wrongly save by the main accused as ‘Thombre saheb collector’ he is falsely implicated.
The Judge had asked additional public prosecutor Rutuja Ambekar to verify his claims about the institution in Jaipur he is enrolled with. The police verified his enrollment and the Judge granted him bail to appear for the written examination. His lawyer said he would also need to attend practical examinations but the dates were not declared yet.
A sessions Judge at Dindoshi had rejected his bail plea on March 23 in the “serious case” hence he approached the HC for interim relief.
The FIR against him and other co-accused was filed by SM Khamkar, a deputy tahsildar posted at Bandra east under whose jurisdiction was Malad.
Khamkar said he looks after the eligibility of slum dwellers in the ongoing project at Malad, Kandivali, Kurar Village etc and a SRA project has been underway since 2013 at Dadisheth Marg, Malad West. He alleged that when one of the co-accused sent him some documents for verification, on cross checking, he found no such slum dweller and further probe disclosed a fake annexure-2 list with allegedly forged signature of the deputy collector Pawan Chandak.