Boban John
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court order that directed the CBI to form a special investigation team (SIT) to probe complaints against Jai Corp, its director Anand Jain and others for allegedly defrauding public investors in real estate projects of ₹2,434 crore.
However, a bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala said that Jai Corp and others are at liberty to seek quashing of the FIR filed by the Economic Offences Branch of CBI, Mumbai, before an appropriate court, which will decide the case uninfluenced by the HC observations.
Senior counsel Harish Salve and counsel Mahesh Agarwal, appearing for Jai Corp and others, told the SC that the allegation made by activist petitioner Shoaib Richie Sequeira have already been considered by statutory regulator-Sebi, SAT, a coordinate bench of the Bombay High Court and also BSE, and none of them found any merit in these allegations.
The FIR by Economic Offences Branch of CBI, Mumbai, was filed on the HC’s January directions, they argued, adding that had the HC given “an opportunity to the petitioner to rebut these complaints, the question of directing any investigation much less constitution of SIT would not have arisen”.
The appeals separately filed by Jai Corp, Jain and others stated that the HC had committed an error in ordering a CBI investigation into the affairs of a public listed company, against which there are no complaints of any shareholder or investor or any lender.
The HC overlooked that the principal allegations relate to inter alia matters which have been the subject matter of complaints made by Sequeira to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and subjected to a full investigation including appeals from order by Sebi to the SAT, the appeals stated.
