The Allahabad High Court last week came down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Uttar Pradesh’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for its failure to properly investigate the multi-crore ‘Shine-City’ scam.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
UP: The Allahabad High Court strongly criticized the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh for their inadequate investigation into the multi-crore ‘Shine-City‘ scam.
A division bench of Justice Siddharth and Justice Prashant Kumar expressed their discontent with the way the investigation was conducted against Shine City Infra Projects Private Limited, which is accused of siphoning off crores from investors in Uttar Pradesh. The Court remarked,
“This Court feels that all these agencies have utterly failed to carry out the investigation properly. The entire investigation has been carried out in most lackadaisical manner. All these investigating agencies are directed to carry out proper investigation against the accused and the Companies and further put sincere efforts to find out the trail of all the money.”
The Court instructed the agencies to file a status report detailing the progress of their investigation. This directive came during the hearing of a writ petition filed by Shriram, an investor in Shine City Infra Projects Private Limited, who sought a fair probe into the allegations surrounding the Shine City scam.
The petitioner argued that the company’s officers were involved in money laundering with various mafias, collecting thousands of crores from numerous investors, including himself, under various schemes. He highlighted that the accused were only arrested after the plea was filed, but no action had been taken against the main accused.
Noting the shortcomings in the investigation despite its own intervention, the Court urged the ED Director to personally address the deficiencies.
“We are exasperated, and are holding back any comments against the I.O., who has thoroughly failed to investigate in this scam. We would request the Director, Enforcement Directorate to personally look into it, as to why investigation was not being carried out properly and ensure that the investigation of this is carried out,”
-the Court stated.
The Court also asked the Ministry of External Affairs to submit a more detailed affidavit on the day-to-day status of the extradition of the fugitive accused. The Court described the agencies’ work as “shocking,” noting that no action was taken despite receiving information from investors and advocates.
Before adjourning the case to July 1 for further hearing, the Court issued specific orders:
“The Investigating Officer would also look into as to whether the banks (from which huge amount of cash was withdrawn and deposited), had ever made any such report to the Head Officer and if yes, why no action was taken against the accused. A proper investigation should be carried out to find out as to where all the cash withdrawn from the bank has been parked/invested. E.D. shall further to find the trail of the said amount. Apart from it the trail of money through bank transactions shall also be investigated.”
Click Here to Read Previous Reports on ED
FOLLOW US ON YOUTUBE FOR MORE LEGAL UPDATES
