Pune: A court here on Tuesday rejected an anticipatory bail application filed by veteran actor Vikram Gokhale in a case of alleged cheating in a land sale project. The case was registered against Gokhale and two others, Jayant Mhalgi and Sujata Mhalgi, at Paud police station in the city in March this year.
Additional sessions judge Madhuri Deshpande rejected Gokhale’s pre-arrest bail plea stating that considering the gravity of the offence, detailed investigation was necessary, said prosecutor Pushkar Sapre. The Mhalgis had floated a firm, Sujata Farms, of which Gokhale was allegedly the chairman. The firm had launched a project called Girivan to sell land plots in Mulshi tehsil of Pune district.
Jayant Bahirat, the complainant, had alleged that the trio cheated him and others to the tune of Rs 96.99 lakh. As per the prosecution, Gokhale and the other two falsely claimed that it was a government-recognized project, and sold plots to Bahirat and others.
However, the actual plots which were transferred to the buyers were different and smaller than what was mentioned in sale deeds executed some 25 years ago, it said. Gokhale in his application contented that he was neither a director nor chairman of Sujata Farms Pvt Ltd, and was not a party to any sale deed or document.
Since he is a Marathi-Hindi film actor, Sujata Farms requested him to allow the firm to use his name and celebrity status for promotion of the project and offered him a small honorarium in 1997, he said. .
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