PRAYAGRAJ: The
Allahabad HC
has pulled up
ED
, Serious Fraud Investigation Office (
SFIO
) and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for their “failure to carry out proper investigation” into the
Shine City scam
, where several crores of investors’ money was siphoned by the accused.
The court directed the three agencies to file a status report showing the progress of the investigation and asked the Union ministry of external affairs to file an affidavit showing the day-to-day progress about extradition of the main accused
Rashid
Naseem, who has been a fugitive accused.
The court has fixed July 1 as the next date of hearing.
The Shine City Group of Companies has operations all over UP and outside.
Hearing a writ petition filed by Shriram Ram, an investor of the company, a division bench comprising Justice Siddharth and Justice
Prashant
Kumar observed, “This court feels that entire investigation has been most lackadaisical and all these agencies have utterly failed. ”
In the order on May 31, court also directed that no further sale deeds shall be executed by the accused or their nominees or their managers in favour of any third party. The court directed the respondent authorities to ensure that none of the person, who is involved in this case, shall leave the country.
ED had initiated investigation on the basis of approximately 250 FIRs registered by UP Police against Rashid Naseem and Shine City Group of Companies, after it was alleged they had collected approximately Rs 800-1000 crore, from the public in the name of investment and committed fraud.
However, it was only after filing of writ petitions and intervention of this court that few of the accused were arrested, but the main accused Rashid Naseem, who was arrested in Nepal for identical activities, managed to slip out of the country and fled to Dubai.
