Court rejects CBI's closure report in Rs 222 cr bank fraud case against HAIL

New Delhi [India], February 24 : Special CBI judge at Rouse Avenue court on Friday while rejecting the closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case ordered a further probe into a case against meat exporter, Hindo Agro Industries Limited (HAIL), and its directors. This company exports meat and meat products to 55 destinations overseas.
This case was registered for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks of about Rs 222 crores.
Special CBI judge Amit Kumar passed the directions while taking cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a related money laundering case.
While taking cognizance, the judge said that there were materials in the ED's complaint charge sheet (complaint) which suggest that the offence was committed.
In the money laundering case, the court issued summoned to the representative of HAIL, its managing director Sirajuddin Qureshi and the other accused, for March 24.
While rejecting the CBI's closure report the judge said, "Investigation Officer (IO) did not investigate on the aspect that Hindo Agro Industries Ltd. (HAIL) transferred funds only to its sister concerns only on papers and there was no real business dealing between HAIL and the sister concerns."
The court noted in the order, "There were no actual sales by HAIL and only on papers sales were shown to the sister concerns."
"There is no investigation in respect to bogus sale purchase by HAIL with sister concerns. HAIL continued to project its sales to avoid banker's attention on the actual falling sales and HAIL in connivance with its Directors diverted bank funds to sister concerns," a CBI judge pointed out.
The court noted that a perusal of the closure report shows that IO has mentioned that as far as the allegations qua diversion of sanctioned funds is concerned, due to the non-availability of complete documents, diversion of funds could not be established.
Further for the diversion of funds for the Chennai branch, it is stated that due to the non-availability of complete documents, it could not be conclusively established that the fraud was committed, the court noted, the court further noted.
" The entire closure report shows that for all the allegations raised in the complaint, the IO has stated that the same could not be established for want of documents," the court said.
"In view of the same, I am of the considered view that the closure report can not be accepted and it requires for further investigation on the aspects mentioned hereinabove," the judge said.
The present case was initiated on the allegations that the accused in conspiracy with unknown bank officials caused wrongful loss to the consortium of banks on the basis of misrepresentation/concealment of facts and false documents and caused a loss of Rs.221.72 crores to the consortium of banks.
The CBI had lodged an FIR against the company, its managing director Sirrajuddin Qureshi, director Kiran Qureshi and others
After investigation, the IO filed the closure report on the ground that the accounts turned NPA due to genuine business failure and not because of fraud.
In ED's case, its Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana submitted that there is sufficient evidence to prove the money laundering charges against the accused.
The ED had registered its case on the basis of CBI's FIR.