Justice not in sight for MMCB depositors trial yet to begin

Despite CBI filing chargesheet in 2003 trial in multi-crore scam remains pending

The criminal trial against the tainted stock broker Ketan Parekh and other key players in the Rs 1,200 crore Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB) scam is still pending since last eight years after the investigating agency CBI had filed chargesheet in a special court in the city in 2003.

Justice for the depositors who lost their savings seems far from sight as the trial was yet to begin against the key accused who are apparently out on bail.

The trial has been delayed following applications by accused, appeals and other legal issues. In the meanwhile, Parekh and his close aide Vineet Parikh have obtained bail and are out of jail. Also the CBI court has discharged two other key accused Mahesh Babu and Dharmesh Doshi for lack of evidence.

Now, with RBI cancelling the banking licence of MMCB, the fate of over 10,000 depositors, remain uncertain, while the key conspirators have managed to get relief from the courts. "The trial had been delayed following various kinds of applications by the accused. It was only after the Gujarat High Court directions on our petition to expedite criminal proceeding against the scam accused in 2011 that the things have now got moving," MMCB CEO BKR Maruti said. He further said that MMCB over 1500 suits are pending at different stages in various courts.

In 2003 the CBI had filed chargesheet against defaulters Parekh, Babu, Doshi, Parikh and Shishir Maniyar, and officer bearers of MMCB, chairman Ramshchandra Parikh, Managing director Devendra Pandya and manager of Mumbai branch J B Pandya.

While the trial was pending in the CBI court Parekh and Parikh were granted conditional bail by the Supreme Court. Also, The chairman of the MMCB board Rameshchandra Parikh died in 2007 while in prison. Two other accused are at present in jail -- Devendra Pandya and Shishir Maniyar.

Two other key accused and close aide of Parkeh, Mahesh Babu and Dharmesh Doshi were discharged of all charges by the CBI court last year. The MMCB has challenged their discharge in higher court.

It is also now not certain as to in how much time the trial against Parekh and other would begin as the court is busy dealing with the discharge applications of the accused and other miscellaneous applications.