Art director Nitin Desai's death: No interim relief to Edelweiss officials; HC to hear their pleas on Aug 18

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Bombay High Court on Friday refused to pass any order granting urgent interim reliefs to Edelweiss company officials, accused of abetting the suicide of renowned film art director Nitin Desai, and said it would hear their pleas against the FIR on August 18. A division bench of Justices N W Sambre and R N Laddha also issued a notice to Desai's wife, who is the complainant in the case. Senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Edelweiss Financial Services Chairman Rashesh Shah, Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company's MD and CEO Raj Kumar Bansal and two other company officials urged the court to grant them interim protection from any coercive action and also sought quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered against them.

Public prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai told the court that the FIR in the case was registered only last week and that the probe in the case was still on. The bench then said it would hear the petitions on August 18. «Wait for a week.

We will hear the matter on August 18 and consider the interim orders sought,» the court said. Apart from the Edelweiss officials, Jitender Kothari, who was appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as an interim resolution professional, had also moved the high court seeking for the FIR to be quashed. All the petitions sought interim protection from the HC.

Desai, 57, who had worked for acclaimed Bollywood films such as «Lagaan» and «Jodhaa Akbar», was found hanging at his studio at Karjat in Maharashtra's Raigad district on August 2. On August 4, Desai's wife approached the Khalapur police station seeking registration of an FIR into his death. Following this, an abetment to suicide case was registered against Shah and Bansal.