Stockguru: Prime accused Ullhas Prabhakar, wife denied bail

Ullhas Prabhakar, the prime accused in the multi-crore 'StockGuru' scam related money laundering case, and his wife have been denied bail by a special court, maintaining that the charges against them were grave.
Special Judge Gurdeep Singh denied the relief to Prabhakar alias Lokeshwar Dutt and his wife Priyanka Saraswat Dev, who are currently in judicial custody
In its order, the court noted that since 1999, the accused couple has been moving from place to place including Bangalore, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar, Dehradun, Delhi, Goa and Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), assuming different identities.
"The accused applicants are the initial directors of M/s SGI (Stockguru India) and, thereafter, of five companies incorporated by them, being directors. They have played an active role in cheating the investors and also acquired huge movable and immovable properties as a proceed of crime and were found in possession of proceed of crime," it said, adding it was their duty to prove that the money was not tainted.

"Admittedly, accused persons acquired many identities by creating several bank accounts and also absconded and lived in assumed names from where they were arrested by police," the court said.
The charge sheet was filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the couple and six others for alleged money laundering.

The other accused are Nitin Sinha and five companies -- SGI Research and Analysis Ltd, SGI Securities Pvt Ltd, SGI Beverages Ltd, G3 Commodities Pvt Ltd and SGI Buildtech Ltd.
In its complaint, ED had alleged that properties in the name of these accused were "proceeds of crime" and claimed that probe had revealed that 2,05,062 investors had invested a total of about Rs 493.94 crore in M/s Stockguru India.

Both the accused were arrested by Delhi Police in November 2012 where they were living by the name of Maya Marathe and Siddharth Jay Marathe. Later, the ED had lodged a separate money laundering case against them.