Mumbai: In a 22-year-old case of cheating the public of Rs 51.7 crore by accepting deposits offering high returns, a special court acquitted a 61- -yea-old woman, saying it has not been established that she had accepted deposits or she had intention to deceive investors.The court acquitted Malad (west ) resident Bhavana Thakkar while the case against her husband Ajay Thakkar got abated. He died by suicide in Gujarat.Special Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act judge Nikhil Mehta said that it could not be established that Bhavana was promoter, partner, director, manager responsible for the management of or conducting of the business or affairs of the financial establishment. “It could not be established that depositors entrusted any money with Bhavana to be utilised by financial firms to gain profit to be used in repaying deposits with interest to investors. The court said, “There is no material to show that Bhavana had promised any specified service against said deposit with an intention of causing wrongful gain for herself and to cause wrongful loss to depositors.”Ajay along with his wife and other family members had formed a financial institution in 1998 and started accepting deposits from people with a promise of higher returns of 1% to 1.5% per month. Bhavana Thakkar and her husband used to issue bills of exchange as acknowledgment of having accepted deposit and also issued post dated cheques consisting of interest sum on the deposit. The firm accepted the deposits in form of cash as well as in form of cheque and in return they gave a bill and also a postdated cheque as assurance.From March 2001 onward, the financial firm stopped giving interest to depositors on their invested money.The court said that there was no evidence to show that she was a promoter or responsible for the management of Ajay’s business. “She never promised them higher returns which suggest that she never made false and wrongful representation with intention to deceive investors,” the court said while acquitting her.One of the witnesses relied on bank entry to show that the cheque issued in the name of Bhavana was debited from his account. “Mere filing of bank statement would not be any of support to the case of prosecution unless there is proof of record to indicate that those statement are actually issued by witness bank,” the court said.There was no intention on her part to deceive depositors, which got fortified from the statement of witnesses that she never approached them for deposit, the court said.