The Supreme Court on Tuesday suggested to Manak Mehta, brother-in-law of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is an accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, to give a “authority letter” to the CBI for its access and investigation. Offshore Bank Accounts.
The top court was hearing the CBI’s plea challenging the Bombay High Court’s August 23, 2022 order, filed through its Director, Banking Securities Fraud Branch, Mumbai, which allowed Mehta to travel to Hong Kong. And was allowed to stay there for three months.
The central probe agency has alleged that Mehta received huge amounts of money in the PNB fraud scam and transferred them to foreign bank accounts of himself and his wife.
Mehta is a British citizen who lives in Hong Kong with his family and came to India India To appear in a Mumbai court on September 8, 2021.
“What we suggest to you (Mehta’s counsel) is that you give a warrant to an officer designated by the CBI to access the bank details. End of the matter. Or, let us dispose of the CBI’s SLP (Special Leave Petition) impartially. Will hear from and decide,” the CJI said.
“Are you willing to give the authorization letter? What we suggest is… either you accept the request and give the authorization letter to the CBI. Alternatively, we will hear the matter,” the bench said. .
It listed the matter for further hearing on February 9.
At the outset, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for CBI, apprised the bench of the developments in the case so far.
The position is that last time I requested my learned friend (counsel for Mehta) to give us the charter. This was refused. So we had to get a Letter Rogatory (LR) issued. No response has been received on LR. We have written to the embassy (in Singapore) to take it forward,” said the law officer.
We suspect that a huge amount of money has gone into these accounts. He is not giving us access to the account. He is a foreign national. His wife is a citizen of Belgium. Once he is gone, he will not come back,” he said.
Senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for Mehta, referred to records and said that he is cooperating in the investigation and was made an approver by the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case arising out of the PNB case.
I have been in India for a long time and away from home. False allegations are being leveled by the CBI. We have always cooperated. We have done everything. We are ready to give the charter but then I have to stay in India for one more year.
“ED has said that I am not a flight risk. All I am saying is let me go for some time, I will come when needed. The travel application has become an enquiry,” Desai said.
The senior counsel said that he should at least be allowed to attend an important business meeting in Dubai which is being held for the first time after COVID-19.
The bench, which seemed unconvinced, said that allowing Mehta to travel abroad would amount to rejecting the CBI’s appeal without a hearing.
Once we do that, we are dismissing the SLP of CBI without even hearing the matter. This may not work,” the CJI said, adding that the court cannot compel Mehta to give the authority letter to the CBI.
“We will allow you to consider our suggestion of giving the letter to the CBI. Take it from us that if you don’t give it, we will not hold it against you,” the bench said while adjourning the hearing.
Earlier, the top court had said that it would hear on January 31 the CBI’s plea challenging the Bombay High Court order allowing Mehta to visit Hong Kong.
The bench was informed by Mehta’s counsel that Letters Rogatory (LR) had been issued to a Singapore court to obtain evidence against Mehta.
Earlier, the CBI had informed a Singapore court about the approval of the Union Home Ministry to approach the special CBI court in Mumbai for issue of LR to obtain evidence against Mehta.
Letters Rogatory is a document seeking to obtain evidence through a foreign court within the scope of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) from a person residing under the territorial jurisdiction of the requested court and if no such treaty exists So on the basis of reciprocity.
The CBI has said that Mehta is a relative of Nirav Modi, an accused in the multi-crore PNB scam, and has not fully cooperated with the investigation.
The CBI had flagged issues regarding non-disclosure by Mehta about transactions in bank accounts, including one based in Singapore and two transactions of USD 8.9 million and USD 1.8 million transferred by Modi’s father.
The probe agency had said that Mehta should share the details with it after which he can be considered for foreign travel.
It has alleged that an amount of USD 30 million sent by Modi was diverted by Mehta, and said it needed to know the details.
On August 23, 2022, the Bombay High Court dismissed the CBI’s plea against the order of a special court dealing with cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which allowed Mehta to travel to Hong Kong. The CBI wanted a stay on the order of the PMLA court.
The CBI had submitted to the high court that Mehta was not named as an accused in the case and his role in the PNB scam was yet to be ascertained, for which he was required to be interrogated.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)