Rashesh Shah, chairman of Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company, and Raj Kumar Bansal, managing director and CEO, on August 7 filed separate petitions before the Bombay high court to set aside an FIR filed against them for alleged abetment to suicide of art director Nitin Desai. Their separate pleas are against the state and widow of Nitin Desai, Naina. They seek to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of the HC under the Constitution to do “complete justice” by quashing the FIR against them.
The pleas were mentioned on August 7 for urgent hearing on August 8 (today). Senior counsel Amit Desai on behalf of the two petitioners said that there cannot have been abetment to suicide when they were merely following the legal process for recovery of dues. The duo is seeking interim relief of no coercive steps and a stay of the investigation.
The police in Raigad had issued Shah and Bansal notices to appear and provide information on August 8. The court said, it will hear the matter on August 8.
Desai’s wife had lodged, after his suicide on August 2, a First Information Report on August 4 with the Khalapur police station invoking the offence of abetment to suicide under section 306 of the IPC read with common intention by various accused. The FIR was filed against Rashesh Shah, Raj Kumar Bansal, interim resolution professional (IRP) Jitendra Kothari and two others.
The National Company Law Tribunal in Bombay had in its July 25 order appointed Kothari as the IRP after ordering a corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against Nitin Desai’s company, ND’s Art World Pvt. Ltd., over its Rs. 252 crore debt following two loans totalling Rs. 181 crore.