Court rejects Kirit Somaiya’s anticipatory bail plea

The BJP leader and his son are said to have misappropriated money under a campaign to save INS Vikrant

The City Civil and Sessions Court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of BJP’s vice-president of Maharashtra Kirit Somaiya in an alleged case of misappropriation of funds generated to save the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant from being scrapped.

The court refused to grant Mr. Somaiya any protection from arrest and held that there are pictures to show that he had collected money in the name of the ship; there is also a letter that states he was going to deposit the money with the Governor, which, however, he did not. The court will pronounce the order on the anticipatory bail by Neil Somaiya on April 12.

The Somaiyas had filed for pre-arrest bail on April 9 after the Trombay police registered a criminal case against them on the basis of a complaint by a retired Army officer Baban Bhosale. The FIR was registered under sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code.

INS Vikrant was decommissioned in 1997 and was sold and scrapped in November 2014. The Somaiyas had started a campaign called “Save INS Vikrant” to raise funds for saving the vessel from being scrapped and collected more than ₹57 crore though Mr Somaiya had donated only ₹2000, the complaint said.

Senior advocate Ashok Mundargi appeared for the Somaiyas and termed the case political vendetta, saying that the father and son were being targeted as the case is seven years old.

However, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police opposed the plea and said the duo did not appear before the police station as per procedure and filed for the anticipatory bail instead. It was also contended by the agency that other than Mr. Bhosale there are witnesses who also support the case of the father-son duo embezzling money.

The EOW also pointed out that senior Mr. Somaiya did not seek anyone’s permission before beginning to collect money to save the ship and that as a former member of parliament he is in an influential person and in a position to tamper evidence.