Friday, May 27 2005 21:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Industrialist and art dealer Guru Swarup Srivastava, arrested in a case of forgery, was today (May 27, 2005) remanded to judicial custody till June 10 by a sessions court, which also reserved order on his bail plea.

After hearing arguments on Srivastava's bail petition, sessions judge P S Paranjpe reserved the order till May 30.

Srivastava, Chairman and Managing Director of Swarup Group of Industries was arrested by the crime branch for forging documents to remit money abroad through a foreign bank.

The judge remanded Srivastava to judicial custody after his lawyers argued that the accused could be remanded to police custody for a maximum 15-day period, which expires tomorrow (May 28, 2005).

His lawyers, Harshad Ponda, I A Bagaria and Bharat Joshi argued that at the time of first remand, the police had stated that they wanted to recover money. The police had cited the same ground for extending Srivastava's remand. However, the police had not made any recovery so far, alleged Ponda.

They also argued that no case is made out for forging documents or for cheating. Taking police's case at its face value, a case of simple cheating was made out, which is a bailable offence, said Ponda.

According to police, Srivastava had used forged certificates, balance sheet, profit and loss account in Standard Chartered Bank for the purpose of remittance of $ 88,229 to Singapore and $ 45,000 to China.