A Jalgaon court, while hearing the case of housing development scam, will read out the charges against 57 persons including minister Gulabrao Deokar and Sena MLA Sureshdada Jain on Thursday as Jain was not present in during the proceedings on Wednesday.
Jain, through his lawyer, had appealed to the court to exempt him from personal appearance citing ill health. However, special public prosecutor N.D. Suryawanshi strongly objected to Jain’s continued absence and said that Jain was deliberately avoiding appearances in the court.
After listening to both the parties, the court stated that charges would be read out on Thursday and it would question Jain through video conferencing. It may be recalled that the case had been registered in 2006 and offence filed against 57 people.
The `110-crore housing scam witnessed an alleged embezzlement of `29.59 crore.
The scheme was implemented at nine places to adjust 7,500 slumdwellers. Charges were framed against the accused under IPC Sections 406, 409, 420, 411, 109, 34 etc. The court had charged several accused on Monday.
The chargesheet was filed on April 26, 2012 and a supplementary chargesheet was filed on June 1, 2012 against 57 accused. One accused passed away and another turned approver. Two other accused are absconding. One of the accused Rajendra Mayur is on interim bail on medical grounds. Jain was arrested early on March 11, 2012.
Expecting arrest on Saturday night, Jain had attempted to flee. However, the police arrested him after placing a roadblock in Dharangaon village.