Mumbai, Oct 15 A special court here on Thursday denied bail to fugitive businessman Nirav Modi’s associate Sandeep Mistry in the multi-million-dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, stating that he had a history of destruction of evidence and might do so again if released.
Special CBI court judge Subhash Karhale highlighted that Mistry was absconding for about seven years and was detained in Dubai through non-bailable warrant (NBW) as well as extradition proceedings. He was then brought to India and arrested at the Mumbai airport.
“Thus, the appearance of the applicant in this case is under compelling circumstances. Under these circumstances, if he is released on bail, it would be difficult to secure his presence during the course of trial,” the court said.
Mistry had served as the director of Fancy Creations Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company of Nirav Modi.
The CBI, represented by special public prosecutor A Limosin, submitted that Mistry managed and coordinated the operations of Modi’s dummy companies in Dubai and Hong Kong.
The probe agency alleged that he supervised their daily functioning using clandestine communication systems, such as “panemail” and “crickinfo”, which were specifically designed to auto-delete messages to conceal evidence.
The CBI alleged that Mistry played an active role in the criminal conspiracy with Nirav Modi and other accused persons, in furtherance of which they cheated the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
The central agency has also claimed that Mistry, along with Nirav Modi’s brother Nehal and another wanted accused, had threatened the employees — dummy directors of various firms associated with Nirav Modi in Dubai — to leave after the case was lodged in India.
They were allegedly forced to shift to Cairo under the threat that they also could be arrested.
Mistry, through his lawyer, sought bail on parity since other co-accused had been granted relief and the primary chargesheet was filed in 2019.
The defence claimed he was unable to return to India earlier due to his passport being revoked.
The court emphasised that the applicant and others have allegedly committed the fraud of more than Rs 23,780 crore.
The special judge underlined that the applicant has a history of destruction of evidence.
“If he is released on bail, he may destroy the evidence. He may tamper with the prosecution witnesses,” the court said.
“Financial implications of thousands of crores of rupees and the nature of the above referred offences are also sufficient reasons to refuse the bail,” the court ruled.
Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others are being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges since 2018 and also facing investigation by the CBI.
They are accused of perpetrating the fraud in connivance with bank officials and by issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) at the Brady House PNB branch in Mumbai.
(PTI News)
