The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine a plea for a CBI probe into alleged round tripping of funds through a private trust in order to siphon off funds raised by Calcutta-based Srei group of companies as loans from various public sector banks.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar posted the matter for further hearing to the first week of May to enable the CBI to come out with its views and also the petitioner from UP to present himself before the Supreme Court registrar.
The bench passed the direction after hearing advocate Prashant Bhushan for the petitioner who has challenged a March 18, 2024 order of the Allahabad High Court, which had disposed of his petition without any further direction on the ground that a “closure report” had been filed by the UP Police’s EOW (Economic Offences Wing).
Moreover, according to directions given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its circular no. RBI/DBS/2016-17/28 dated 01.07.2016 titled Master Directions on Frauds – Classification and Reporting by commercial banks and select Financial Institutions “cases of fraud of more than ₹500 crore should be lodged with the CBI”.
The petition was opposed by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Gopal Sankaranarayan on behalf of the group on the ground that the petition was motivated, frivolous and filed by a “non-existent person”.
A similar petition had been dismissed by the Calcutta High Court, the senior counsel said.
In view of the allegations and counter-allegations, the CJI directed that the petitioner presents himself before the Supreme Court registrar before the next date of hearing to establish his bona fide in view of the allegations that it had been filed by a “non-existent” person.
Neha Rathi, advocate-on-record for the petitioner who was assisting Bhushan in the matter, requested this paper not to disclose the identity of the petitioner since his life was under a threat.
In the petition filed through Rathi the petitioner had complained that the UP government’s EOW had filed the closure report “without a single finding or investigation having been conducted on the financial scam”.