The Bombay High Court today granted anticipatory bail to Sachin Agarwal, managing director of Pune-based Maple Real Estate Group, and his brother Naveen Agarwal, both of whom are facing charges of cheating the people through misleading advertisement.
The duo had issued advertisement in newspapers offering one BHK flats near Pune for Rs five lakh. The advertisements carried photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and district Guardian Minister Girish Bapat.
The advertisement, which received a huge response, gave the wrong impression that the scheme was a government project, according to the Shivajinagar police in Pune who registered a case of cheating in April this year.
Applicants' lawyer Aniket Nikam argued that they had no intention to cheat the flat buyers while launching an affordable housing scheme, and refunded the money whenever demanded by the buyers.
The two were cooperatiing with the police in the probe and hence their custodial interrogation was not required, advocate Nikam added.
Justice Sadhana Jadhav granted them pre-arrrest bail, asking them to cooperate with police and not to interfere in the probe.
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