SC upholds Bombay HC order for CBI SIT probe into Rs 2,434 cr Jai Corp fraud

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 each of them have not found any merit in these allegations.

And the FIR filed 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.

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What was overlooked by the HC was that the principal allegations relate to inter alia matters which have been the subject matter of complaints made by Sequeira to SEBI and subjected to a full investigation including appeals from order by SEBI to the SAT, the appeals stated.

For instance, one allegation is that Jai Corp, has