The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) dedicated to investigating allegations of large-scale bank fraud by Reliance Communications (RCOM), its group entities and Anil Ambani.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi passed the order."ED is well advised to constitute a SIT comprising senior officers and take all the measures so that the ongoing probe is taken to a logical conclusion," the Court said.
Notably, the Court has also recorded an undertaking given by Anil Ambani's lawyers that he will not leave the country. This was after apprehensions were raised that Ambani could flee India before the probe against him is completed.
The Court said that all measures should be taken to ensure that the investigation is not disrupted."He will not leave without the permission of this court," Ambani's counsel, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi assured the Court today.
"In the past, Mr. Rohatgi has also burnt his finders - he made a similar statement in favour of one of his clients before Delhi High Court (that he would not flee the country), and the person did flee," countered Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta."But he came back and paid ₹5000 crores to this government," Rohatgi replied."Once he is out of the country, what good is a statement?' Bhushan remarked.
"Then there is no reason to trust anybody. Why should statement be recorded about anything," Rohatgi retorted."SG has assured that all preventive action will be taken to not hinder the probe. Mr Rohatgi assured that his client will not leave the country without leave of this court," the Court proceeded to record in its order.
Among other directions, the Court today has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ensure that any possible collusion by bank officials in the alleged fraud is investigated."It is imperative for CBI to probe the conduct of bank officials to check if funds were released with the collusion of bank officers. We direct that ... the CBI must look into the nexus, collusion, conspiracy, if any, and for that purpose, all lawful measures to take the investigation to its logical end (must be) adopted," the Court's order stated.
The Bench further took critical note of arguments that both agencies have been slow in their investigation, and added that it expected the CBI and the ED to ensure a fair probe.The Court added that going by a status report filed by the CBI, its FIR was first registered on a complaint by the SBI and that the scope of this investigation was later enlarged to cover similar complaints by other banks. The Court observed that this does not seem procedurally appropriate.
During the hearing, the Court also orally remarked that it expected the CBI and the ED to periodically inform it about the progress of their investigation in the matter."We expect that your agencies must act fairly and independently and very skillfully. We would like to have status reports every month. In four weeks, let us see, how you take the investigation to a logical conclusion. Such a huge amount has been siphoned!" the Court said, addressing Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta.
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