A court here today granted interim protection from arrest to city-based real-estate developer D S Kulkarni and his wife after a case was registered against them on a complaint of a 65-year-old investor.
Kulkarni had filed for anticipatory a bail application through advocate Shrikant Shivade in the court of special judge J T Utpat here.
Shivade said that the court, while granting protection from arrest, stated that no "coercive" action be taken against his clients till next hearing on November 7.
He told the court that his client has returned around Rs 10,000 crore to the investors between 1982 and 2006 and his properties or assets were five times more than his present liability.
He also argued that one Israel-based firm was supposed to finance one of Kulkarni's projects. But that firm ran into the financial crisis, he said.
"Besides that, he met with an accident and because of a series of misfortunes, he ran into troubles. However, his client is working on a war-footing to repay the money to its investors," Shivade argued.
He said in the last few months, his client has returned Rs 28 crore to its investors.
"He has sincere intention to pay all the money and there are no fraudulent intentions," the lawyer submitted.
A case was registered against Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti on October 28 on a complaint by 65-year-old Jitendra Mulekar that he did not get back his investment from the real estate group.
According to some complainants, there are around 8,000 depositors who have invested with D S Kulkarni's group's fix-deposit scheme but they neither got their money nor the interest from the developer.
Following the complaint by Mulekar, the police received scores of complaints from depositors who claimed that they did not get back their money from the developer.
Based on the complaints, the Economic Offence Wing of Pune Police conducted searches at the realtor's offices and residence in the city on Thursday.
According to the police, the complainants' number soared to around 600 on Friday.
For the past several months, all these investors, largely pensioners, have been queueing up at the realtor's office here.
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