Mumbai, Jun 6 (PTI) A court here has denied bail to a city-based advocate held for allegedly swindling Rs 2.57 crore from a client by providing fabricated High Court orders, saying his conduct was “unnatural”.
Accused Vinay Khatu already has two cases against him for allegedly cheating people by posing as an IAS officer, and any order in his favour “will give a wrong message to society”, the court noted. His bail plea was rejected by additional sessions judge V G Raghuwanshi on June 3.
Khatu was arrested on October 19 last year and is currently in judicial custody.
As per the prosecution, Urmila Talyarkhan, who is the complainant, had engaged Khatu to handle her cases, including some property matters.
She alleged Khatu swindled Rs 2.57 crore from her by providing fabricated orders from the Bombay High Court.
The matter came to light when Talyarkhan consulted another advocate, who informed her that orders provided by Khatu were fabricated, the prosecution said.
She then checked the Bombay High Court website and found no record of any hearings in her Second Appeal, after which she approached police against Khatu.
The defence argued that a chargesheet had been filed and nothing further needs to be seized from Khatu. It also claimed Talyarkhan is a “seasoned litigant” and has a history of making grievances against her advocates.
The court, after hearing both the sides, rejected Khatu’s plea noting that his conduct was “unnatural”.
“I wish to point out that people engage lawyers because they do not understand the procedure of courts and the nature of orders or laws,” the court said.
The court highlighted that previously two offences were registered against the applicant for misrepresenting himself as an IAS officer.
The judge stressed that the court cannot ignore the antecedent of the applicant.
“If this court exercises discretion in favour of the applicant (accused), it will give a wrong message to society,” the court said while rejecting his plea citing “seriousness of allegations and antecedent”. PTI AVI BNM
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.