By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed high-profile stock broker Ketan Parekh’s plea to grant him more time to repay a sum of Rs.260 million he had siphoned from the Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB) in a financial scam.
As a bench of Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice V.S. Sirpurkar dismissed the stock broker’s plea, he can be arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged role in the 2000-01 scam.
The Ahmedabad-headquartered cooperative bank had accused Parekh of siphoning over Rs.10 billion of its funds in collusion with some of its officials. The bank had alleged that out of the total amount, at least Rs.8.88 billion had gone to Parekh.
Parekh, who was the most talked about broker in Mumbai in the early years of the decade, was arrested in 2005. He was granted bail later that year.
Later, as the bank began the recovery process, the apex court had directed Parekh in July 2007 to pay the bank a sum of Rs.3.96 billion in easy instalments, decided in mutual agreement between him and bank.
The apex court had also stipulated that Parekh’s bail would stand cancelled and the CBI would be free to arrest him if he defaulted in paying his instalments by deadlines.
As per the apex court order, Parekh has already paid a sum of Rs.3.7 billion. He had to pay his last instalment of Rs.260 million by May 1, but he defaulted on it.
Soon, Parekh moved the apex court seeking extension of his deadline to pay the remaining sum to the bank. But the apex court Tuesday dismissed his plea.
Meanwhile, the co-operative bank Tuesday also moved the apex court contending that Parekh owed it not Rs.3.96 billion but a total of Rs.8.88 billion.
Appearing for the bank, counsel Mahesh Agarwal pleaded to the bench to direct Parekh to pay the bank’s remaining sum of Rs.5.79 billion as well.
On the bank’s plea, Parekh was also issued notice and was asked to file his reply within two weeks.