The gold, amounting to 400.47 kg, and within the type of bars and ornaments, was seized by the CBI from the workplace constructing of Surana in Chennai, and locked and sealed within the agency’s vaults.
In a significant embarrassment to the CBI, the Madras High Court Friday ordered the Tamil Nadu Police to probe the disappearance of 103 kg gold (amounting to greater than Rs 43 crore) from the company’s custody, rejecting its plea that “the status of the CBI would come down if investigation is completed by the native police”.
Asking the CB-CID to register an FIR, the court docket mentioned: “It could also be an agni pariksha (trial by fireplace) for the CBI, however that can not be helped. If their palms are clear, like Sita, they could come out brighter. If not, they must face the music.” On the CBI Special Public Prosecutor asking for a probe by the CBI or National Investigation Agency as an alternative of the state police, Judge P N Prakash mentioned.
“The court docket can not subscribe to this view, as a result of the legislation doesn’t sanction such an inference. All policemen must be trusted and it doesn’t lie within the mouth of 1 to say that the CBI have particular horns, whereas, the native police have solely a tail.” The CBI had seized the gold in reference to instances relationship again to 2012 filed over allegations that officers of Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC) in Chennai had proven undue favours in direction of Surana Corporation Limited.
which dealt in import of gold and silver. The gold, amounting to 400.47 kg, and within the type of bars and ornaments, was seized by the CBI from the workplace constructing of Surana in Chennai, and locked and sealed within the agency’s vaults.
The CBI claims to have submitted the keys of the vault to a Special CBI Court in Chennai, although no date relating to that is talked about in paperwork. In September 2013, the CBI registered one other case, saying that whereas the seized gold was not wished within the 2012 instances, it had discovered that Surana had imported the identical in violation of the Foreign Trade Policy.
The CBI therefore requested that the seized gold be transferred from the primary case to the recent one following which the court docket allowed the switch of about 400 kg on file. “There was no bodily inventorisation by the court docket” because the gold was already within the vault.
Subsequently, in 2015, the CBI filed a closure report within the second case stating that “there isn’t a ample proof forthcoming”. The CBI Special Court accepted the identical however directed that the seized gold be handed over to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). This order was later put aside by the Madras High Court on Surana’s petition.
In the meantime, the SBI initiated proceedings in opposition to Surana over non-payment of dues — the agency had pending loans amounting to Rs1,160 crore and moved the Special CBI Court searching for the seized gold. In its order on Friday directing a probe in opposition to the CBI, the excessive court docket famous, “Thus… all of them, just like the well-known character Colorado performed by the late Omar Sharif within the Hollywood blockbuster Mackenna’s Gold, went on a gold searching expedition to the Special Court.
Like Colorado getting into into an settlement with Monkey, the Apache, to share the spoils of gold, the SBI and Surana entered into an settlement and filed a compromise memo earlier than the Special Court… handy over the gold weighing 400.47 kg” for settlement of dues.
The CBI opposed Surana’s petition, backed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (underneath which the DGFT falls). Finally, in December 2019, the National Company Law Tribunal, which had been approached by the SBI, ordered that the gold be handed over for distribution to the six banks owed cash by Surana.
However, when the CBI opened the vaults within the presence of the financial institution representatives in February this yr, the gold was discovered to be 103.864 kg quick “to the nice shock and shock of all”, because the excessive court docket famous.
The CBI informed the excessive court docket that that they had used a weighing balance at Surana’s workplace to reach at a determine of 400.47 kg for the gold after the seizure, and the seals affixed by it on the vaults have been intact, therefore arguing that the company couldn’t be held accountable for the lacking gold.
The Special Public Prosecutor mentioned that there might be a discrepancy within the weight as a result of gold chains have been weighed collectively on the time of the seizure, whereas in February, every merchandise was weighed individually, utilizing extra refined machines. Rejecting these arguments, the court docket mentioned it was “unable to fathom as to how there might be a discrepancy of greater than 100 kg… Gold won’t diminish in weight like ganja by efflux.”
Coming down closely on the CBI, the excessive court docket mentioned that had the gold been bodily entrusted to the CBI Special Court, and gone lacking from there, “the CBI would have cried foul from the rooftops and demanded the scalp of the Special Judge and his Property Clerk. The Special Judge and the Property Clerk would have been positioned underneath suspension and would have even been arrested…”.
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