Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi sworn in as Karnataka HC Chief Justice
Bengaluru, Oct 11: Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi on Monday sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office to him at the Raj Bhavan.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar and other top officials were present.
The post of Chief Justice fell vacant after Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka was elevated as a Supreme Court Judge and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma was appointed as the acting Chief Justice of the High Court.
Justice Awasthi had graduated in Law from Lucknow University in 1986 and enrolled as an advocate on February 1, 1987. He had worked as the Assistant Solicitor General of India at Lucknow before elevation.
He was elevated as Additional Judge of High Court of Judicature at Allahabad on April 13, 2009 and took oath as permanent Judge on December 24, 2010.
ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಉಚ್ಛ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದ ಮುಖ್ಯ ನ್ಯಾಯಮೂರ್ತಿ ರಿತು ರಾಜ್ ಅವಸ್ಥಿ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಇಂದು ಘನತೆವೆತ್ತ ರಾಜ್ಯಪಾಲ @TCGEHLOT ಅವರು ಅಧಿಕಾರ ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ವಚನ ಬೋಧಿಸಿದರು.
— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) October 11, 2021
ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ @BSBommai ಅವರು ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡರು. pic.twitter.com/AeBUpPqXcO
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BharatPe fraud case: Delhi HC quashes lookout circular against Ashneer Grover, wife
New Delhi, Nov 12: The Delhi High Court has ordered cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against Ashneer Grover, the former MD of payment app BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, noting that the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery has already been quashed.
Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order on Monday after the court was informed that another bench of the high court quashed the FIR on the same day.
The FIR was quashed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh after considering a plea moved by the Grovers stating that they have arrived at a settlement with the fintech company.
In his order, Justice Narula said, "Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties.
"In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive."
The LOC was issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the instance of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in view of the investigation against the Grovers in the cheating and forgery FIR.
The court was hearing a plea moved by Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover seeking quashing of the LOC issued against them in connection with the investigation into the cheating and forgery case.
"Accordingly, the present petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to cancel the LOC against the petitioners in their records," the court noted.
Earlier, the Grovers claimed that they were informed about the LOC for the first time when they were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on November 16, 2023, while they were scheduled to travel to the US.
After being detained, they were informed that the LOC was operational from November 6, 2023.
In May last year, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 and 468 (forgery), and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint was lodged by BhartPe, the fintech unicorn.
In its complaint, BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages to the tune of Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri, and destruction of evidence.
Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe before she was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.
Subsequently, Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of the fintech firm in March 2022.
