Nagpur: Noted businessman and owner of a two-wheeler dealership named Tajshree Avinash Bhute, whose links has been traced to city’s multi-crore Wasankar Investment Scam, has withdrawn its application from the court in which he had sought time to return Rs 9.19 crore deposited to his dealership account by Prashant Wasankar, the kingpin in the scam.
Bhute withdrew the application filed earlier in the court of special judge of MPID V T Suryawanshi on Monday. The move has not only grown panic among depositors but also thrown open the possibility of police action against him.
Promising high returns, the Wasankar Wealth Management had duped depositors and investors to the tune of about Rs 144 crore. Based on a complaint of one of the depositors Vivek Pathak, the Ambazari police had registered offences under sections 420, 406, 506, 120 (B), 409 of the Indian Penal Code and also under section 3 of Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act against the chief promoter Prashant Wasankar and others including his wife and brother.
During the course of investigations, police had come across various bank accounts of the accused persons including Prashant Wasankar, Bhagyashree Wasankar, Mithila Wasankar, Abhijit Choudhary and Sarla Wasankar. These accounts revealed that the accused had illegally transferred Rs 9.19 crore into the account of Tajshree Group owned by Bhute during the period between March 16, 2013 and November 22, 2013. In fact, this amount was a sort of a ‘security deposit’ for the accused in future.
After the fact was revealed, the government pleader had demanded that the amount along with the interest thereon which came to about Rs 13.71 lakh should be recovered from Bhute.
