Nagpur/Pusad: The JMFC Court (Sadar jurisdiction) has granted bail to Sharad Apparao Maind, Chairman of Pusad Urban Co-operative Bank, who was arrested on September 17, 2025, in connection with the suicide case of government contractor Penmacha Verma.
Maind was booked under Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act, 2023, following an FIR filed by the deceased’s wife, Anuradha Penmacha Verma. She alleged that her husband, who had taken multiple loans from the bank since 2011, was continuously harassed, forced to mortgage properties, and coerced into taking additional loans, ultimately driving him to suicide on September 2, 2025.
The Crime Branch sought eight days of police custody remand, claiming it needed to probe the alleged extortion, repeated loan sanctions (about 50 in number under different names), and threats linked to mortgaged properties.
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19 Sept 2025
However, Advocate Prakash Naidu, representing Maind, opposed the remand. He argued that demanding repayment of bank loans cannot constitute abetment of suicide, especially since the deceased was indebted to multiple lenders and had even sold mortgaged properties without bank consent. Naidu further contended that the arrest itself was illegal, as Maind had been detained in Pusad on September 17 and subjected to searches and medical examination but was not produced before a magistrate within the mandatory 24 hours, nor was a proper arrest memo prepared at the time.
The defence sought default bail, stressing that procedural lapses violated Maind’s constitutional rights. The prosecution countered, stating that Section 108 is a serious offence punishable with up to 10 years’ imprisonment and triable by the Sessions Court, not JMFC.
After hearing both sides, Judge Aarti Krishna Bankar observed that the accused’s detention exceeded the 24-hour legal limit without proper judicial production, rendering the arrest illegal. Accordingly, the Court granted bail to Sharad Maind on grounds of illegal detention.
Maind was represented by a legal team comprising Advocates Prakash Naidu, Manoj Ghatge, Vivek Pande, Mitesh Bais, Homesh Chauhan, Surabhi (Naidu) Godbole, and Dhruv Sharma.
