SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 20: Ranchi-based news channel News11 Bharat head Arup Chatterjee, who is facing over a dozen cheating charges, will have to stay in jail further after the Dhanbad District and Session Court rejected his bail petitions in two cases.
Arup Chatterjee had filed petitions for regular bail in two cheating cases including one of Rs 25 lakh lodged in Tisri police station on July 30, 2022, by Kundan Paswan, a resident of Lodna Bazar, and the second complaint lodged by Amtal Panchayat Mukhia Sanjay Kumar for cheating Rs 7.11 lakh in Baliapur police station on July 23, 2022.
The court of District and Session Judge Sujit Kumar Sinha after hearing the plea of defense lawyer Shahnawaz and Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Kuldeep Sharma rejected the bail petition in both cases.
Arup Chatterjee, a resident of Bhuli Township of Dhanbad, has been in Dhanbad jail since July 20 after a special team of Dhanbad police arrested him from his Ranchi-based apartment on late night of July 19 in connection with demanding extortion from a coal trader Rakesh Ojha and blackmailing him along with a notorious coal trader Manager Roy.
According to the FIR lodged in Tisri police station by Kundan Paswan, in 2014, Chatterjee collected Rs 25 lakh from his mother Sumitra Devi in the name of Care Vision Infrastructure and Agritech Limited to give Rs 3000 per month as premium interest.
Arup Chatterjee paid the interest for a few months but stopped it when he shifted to Ranchi. He also denied refunding the amount. When he was arrested in Ranchi on July 19 and lodged in Dhanbad jail, Kundan Paswan filed the FIR on July 30 at Tisri police station.
Amtal Panchayat Mukhia also lodged an FIR in Baliapur police station on July 23 alleging that Arup had cheated him of Rs 7.11 lakh in February 2012 in the name of an attractive scheme but did not return the money. Till now, Arup’s bail plea in three out of four cheating cases lodged in different police stations of Dhanbad has been rejected.
