Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya fled India as probe agencies did not arrest them at proper time: Court
Mumbai (PTI): Businessmen involved in multi-million dollar scams, such as Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya, were able to flee the country because probe agencies failed to arrest them at the proper time, a special court here said recently.
Special judge M G Deshpande made the remark while hearing a plea of an accused booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) seeking modification in his bail condition.
The court on May 29 accepted the plea of Vyomesh Shah, an accused in a money laundering case, to drop the bail condition of getting the court's prior permission to travel abroad.
The detailed order was made available recently.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had argued that allowing Shah's application would give rise to situations like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksi.
Rejecting the probe agency's contention, the judge said, "I thoughtfully examined this argument and felt it necessary to note that all these persons fled because of the failure of the investigating agencies concerned in not arresting them at the proper time."
On the contrary, Shah had appeared before the court responding to the summons, secured bail, and applied many times to travel abroad, he said.
Shah's case cannot be equated with the cases of Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Chokshi etc, the court held.
Diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are prime accused in the multi-crore PNB scam.
Modi is currently serving a prison sentence in the UK, while his uncle lives in Antigua.
Mallya, currently in the UK, is accused in the over 900-crore alleged loan fraud case, being probed by the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
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SC issues contempt notice over scurrilous allegations against Telangana HC judge
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued contempt notices to a litigant and his lawyers for making "scurrilous allegations" against a sitting judge of the Telangana High Court in their plea.
The top court, while issuing the show cause notices to the petitioner and his lawyers, refused to allow withdrawal of the petition, and said, “We cannot permit judges to be out in a box and allow any litigant to make such allegations against a judge. Here we were trying to protect lawyers.”
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran was hearing a transfer plea filed by petitioner N Peddi Raju filed through advocate-on-record Ritesh Patil.
The petition involved a case in which Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had received relief from a high court in a matter under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“Here we were trying to protect lawyers, but this kind of conduct cannot be condoned,” the bench, which earlier heard another suo motu case pertaining to summoning of lawyers by the ED for rendering legal advice, said.
“Scurrilous allegations have been made against the sitting judge of Telangana High Court. It has been held (in a judgement) that it is not only a litigant but also a lawyer who signs (the petition) is guilty of contempt of court.
“We thus issue notice to Peddi Raju as well as the lawyers … and the AoR. They are directed to state why contempt should not be initiated against them. Notice returnable on August 11,” the CJI said.
A counsel sought the liberty to withdraw the remarks after the court expressed strong displeasure. However, the bench dismissed the request.
“File apology …we will see whether to consider or not. We will see the apology is genuine or not. When we expressed displeasure at the language, liberty was sought to withdraw. We dismissed the request,” the bench said.
The case stems from the Telangana High Court's decision to quash a criminal case registered against the chief minister under the SC/ST Act.
The petitioner later approached the top court with a transfer plea, alleging bias and impropriety on the part of the high court judge.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared on behalf of the chief minister.
