Ketan Parekh, others get bail in stock scam case

The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to former stock broker Ketan Parekh and three others in connection with a transaction in the 1992 stock scam that duped Canbank Financial Services Ltd of over Rs 47 crore.

A Special Court in Mumbai had sentenced Parekh and six others to one-year rigorous imprisonment for siphoning off funds to the tune of more than Rs 47 crore from Canbank Financial Services Ltd, a unit of Canara Bank.

A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat on Monday granted bail to Parekh and three other co-accused — B R Acharya, M K Askok Kumar and Shrenik Jhaveri. They had surrendered after their deadline to surrender had expired on July 31.

Parekh and the three other co-accused had challenged the Special Court (For Trial of Offences Relating to Transactions in Securities Act) verdict, which had sentenced Parekh, Hiten Dalal and five others to one-year rigorous imprisonment for siphoning off the money.

Though all of them were out on bail at the time of conviction, the Special Court had extended their bail till July 31, to enable them to file appeals against the order in the apex court.

The Special Court had convicted Parekh, Dalal and Canfina officials for entering into a criminal conspiracy to “siphon off Rs 47 crore” between October 1991 and January 1992. They had colluded to transfer money belonging to Canfina to accounts with Canbank MF in Mumbai, and instead of returning the money to Bangalore-based Canfina, CBMF diverted it to the accounts of Parekh and other stock brokers.

Parekh has been banned from operating in the stock market by the Securities and Exchange Board of India for his role in manipulating the stock prices of various companies in 2000-01.