Ex-CEO of IL&FS Fin Serv gets HC shield from arrest

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday granted protection to former CEO & MD of IL&FS Financial Services, Ramesh Bawa, and directed the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) not to arrest him till April 10. The HC directed Bawa to continue cooperating with the SFIO investigation in the affairs of IL&FS. The relief was granted after Bawa, who had come to the HC to have the entire criminal probe by SFIO against him quashed, said he wished to approach the Supreme Court instead.
Bawa’s counsels Vikram Choudhary and Sujay Kantawala sought to withdraw the petition since a challenge similar to the one he has additionally made to the validity of harsh bail provisions under the Companies Act for offences of fraud is pending before the SC.Choudhary sought protection against arrest till the SC is approached. Bawa’s petition in the HC said that “on the last attendance, he was informed that unless he makes a confession on the next date, he shall be arrested”.
Bawa has already appeared before SFIO pursuant to seven summons he received since last October to appear for its probe, a bench headed by Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre was informed. The latest one was on March 30. He has given thousands of documents, said his counsel, even as the SFIO opposed any grant of relief to him as it said it has also arrested former IL&FS VC & MD Hari Sankaran after detailed investigations.
The SFIO counsel Amit Desai, with H S Venegaonkar, expressed a fear that if any relief is granted, it could set a precedent in serious fraud cases. Desai cited SC judgments to argue that the HC could not protect him against arrest once it was not hearing the matter after withdrawal by him. The court differentiated between Bawa’s case and cases in two judgments cited by the SFIO.
The HC recorded that Bawa has attended the SFIO office for six months and, finding that a few days more would not make any difference, granted protection till April 10, but not after that. The SFIO admitted that Bawa has been cooperating with it so far.
The HC, thus, passed the order which is only for this case. The petition by Bawa was filed on April 1, the same day that Sankaran was arrested by the SFIO for alleged fraud and conspiracy in funding defaulting borrowers and indiscriminate lending to borrowers classified as NPAs.