CBI court permits Ketan Parekh to go abroad again

A special CBI court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday granted tainted stock market trader Ketan Parekh, prime accused in multi-crore securities scam, permission to visit United Kingdom (UK) for two months.

The permission was granted by additional chief judicial magistrate H S Khutwad based on a application by Parekh who is also main accused in the Rs 1,200 crore scam in the Madhavpura Mercentile Cooperative Bank (MMCB) here, which has led to closure of the bank. The RBI had recently canceled the banking licence of the MMCB, nearly 11 years after the multi-crore scam came to light.

Parekh has been granted permission to visit UK for not more than two months on the conditions that he deposits Rs 25 lakh with the court.

He has also been asked to get two guarantors, who are well known and could give an assurance that he would not violate the conditions of permission given by the court.

The former stock market trader had sought permission to go to UK on the grounds that one his daughter was ill and required treatment.

He had further said that he also needed to attend convocation of his other daughter in UK.

After his arrest in the multi-crore scam in 2001, Parekh has twice visited UK on the grounds of ill-health of his daughter.

This will be the third time he has been granted permission.

The court also dismissed another petition filed by MMCB seeking enhancement of bail amount of Parekh from Rs 380 crore to Rs 1600 crore.

Meanwhile, another application by the MMCB seeking cancelation of Parekh's bail was adjourned till June 16 by the court after Parekh's lawyer sought time to file their reply to the bank's petition. The MMCB had filed the bail cancelation application few months ago.