Madras HC dismisses anticipatory bail of Maradu builder

The inter-State interim anticipatory bail application of Sandeep Mehta, managing director of Jain Housing Constructions Limited was rejected by the Madras High Court on Tuesday. Mehta is an accused in the Maradu illegal apartments case.

Chennai (Tamil Nadu): The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed an inter-State interim anticipatory bail application of one Chennai-based Sandeep Mehta, managing director of Jain Housing Constructions Limited in the Maradu illegal apartments case despite his real estate firm operating a branch in Kerala.

The court had previously granted interim bail for a period of four weeks to the realtor on October 18. However, the realtor returned to the court a week later for corrections in the crime number mentioned in the order copy.

Opposing his plea, State Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan said the realtor was facing prosecution for having constructed 124 flats in a high-rise apartment named Jain Coral Cove on the banks of the Kochi backwaters. His apartment block was among the four ordered to be demolished by the Supreme Court for having violated the Coastal Regulatory Zone norms.

Natarajan further informed the court that the accused has an office and other establishments in Kerala apart from several other states in the country, a fact that has been suppressed by Mehta in his affidavit.

Dismissing the claims laid by Mehta’s counsel, who argued that the petitioner did not have a permanent residence in Kerala, and that he was born and brought up in Chennai, the court pointed out that the realtor had been booked by the Kerala police only in his capacity as the Managing Director of Jain Housing and not in his individual capacity.

The court examined whether a person operating a business entity in a particular State could obtain interim advance bail from a High Court of another State just because he was a permanent resident of the latter.

Accepting the arguments put forth by Natarajan, the court finally dismissed the inter-state A-anticipatory bail petition filed by Mehta.