An NRI businessman in the UK has been declared an absconder, and his anticipatory bail plea rejected by the Bombay High Court.

Praveen Kadam submitted the bail petition after being accused of persistently establishing sexual relations with a woman, under the pretext of marrying her. ‘An absconding accused cannot ordinarily claim anticipatory bail,’ said the court.

Justice Madhav J. Jamdar heard the bail application of Kadam. Advocates Mahesh Vaswani along with Shreya Tiwari and Mikdad Zummerwala opposed the anticipatory bail in favour of the victim girl.

An Andheri resident, the victim registered an offence against Kadam at Lonavala City Police Station. The police then booked Kadam and his friend under Sections 69, 318(4), 3(5), and 316(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66(E) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Advocate Tiwari said, “Kadam did not return to India for his father’s funeral who died on the same day when the FIR came to be registered against him at Lonavala Police Station.”

Kadam had repeatedly forced sexual and unnatural relations with the victim girl at hotels in Lonavala and Pahalgam. He had hidden the fact that he was already married. Kadam and his brother, Hrishikesh Kadam, have both extracted money from her, promising to pay her back. The incidents had taken place from September 4-20, 2024.

Kadam and his brother are still absconding. – editor@nrifocus.com