A Delhi Court on Thursday remanded Rishi Agarwal, the former promoter of ABG Shipyard Ltd, for four days in connection with India's biggest bank loan scam of over Rs 22,000 crores.
Special Judge Bhupinder Singh on Thursday while granted remand to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said that, the magnitude of the amount involved in the matter and the extent of the investigation itself reflects the gravity of the offence.
Thus, the Court cannot divest the investigating officer of the opportunity for comprehensive and sustained interrogation of the accused. There exists sufficient grounds in the application to justify police custody.
The public Prosecutor appearing for CBI stated that Rishi Agarwal has been evasive and is not cooperating in the investigation therefore, CBI requires seven days of custody of the accused person.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal along with Rinku Garg appearing for Rishi Agarwal opposed the Remand Application of CBI and argued that the Court does not have requisite jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter as (a) there is no allegation of involvement of public servant, even in the complaint filed by Bank, State Bank of India has itself mentioned that no staff accountability has been found as per report of E-SAP and the FIR mentioning the provisions of PC Act are baseless and in absence of involvement of public servant the Hon'ble Court does not have the jurisdiction in the present matter; (b) CBI has not sought approval of the competent Authority U/s 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 which is mandatory before initiation of enquiry or registration of FIR or Inquiry or Investigation against any public servant; (c) CBI still did not have Jurisdiction to register the FIR as the alleged place of offence which in the present case is Mumbai and not New Delhi as all the activities including sanction of loan as well as disbursement has taken place in Mumbai, Maharashtra; (d) FIR has been registered in New Delhi in view to circumvent the bar under Section 6 of the DSPE Act, as the same provides that the CBI cannot investigate an offence within a State without its consent and the consent of the State was withdrawn by the Maharashtra Government at the time FIR was registered.
Advocate Aggarwal vehemently stated that the FIR mentions that the information was received by CBI on Februray 7, 2022, but the FIR only mentions that the complaint was received on August 25, 2022, which are two contrary things. He also showed the portions of the complaint which itself states that CBI has acted as an advisor to the bank in the filing of the complaint against his client.
He also added that his client has been joining the investigation on various dates; submitting a detailed representation; duly replying to various notices seeking details and documents running into thousands of pages, despite duly cooperating with the investigation the Applicant/Accused was arrested by Applicant on September 21, 2022.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal argued that his client is suffering from certain health problems and therefore, he be granted permission for home-cooked food, medicine and bedding while being in CBI's Custody, the same was allowed by the Special Judge and a further meeting of family members and lawyer's meeting has also been allowed.
As per the complaint, M/s ABG Shipyard Ltd and its Directors had cheated the consortium of 28 banks. led by ICICI Bank causing fraud of Rs.22,842 Crores. It is submitted that huge amounts were transferred by M/s ABG parties and Shipyard Ltd. to its related parties and subsequently adjustment entries were made.
( With inputs from ANI )
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