CBI court initiates process to declare two accused POs

Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 6

Dr Sushil Kumar Garg, Special Judge, CBI court, Chandigarh, has started proceedings to declare two accused as proclaimed offenders (POs) in the alleged fraud with a bank worth over Rs7.29 crore.

This comes after the accused failed to appear before the court despite issuing summons and non-bailable warrants (NBWs) against them.

The court had earlier issued bailable warrants against Amrinder Singh, director of Arvind Machine Tools Private Limited, Mohali, and Parminder Singh, proprietor of Punjab Steel Scrap Corporation, in the alleged fraud case with Indian Overseas Bank.

During the hearing of arguments in the case on Friday, the court observed that summons had been issued against both accused on their last known addresses. Thereafter, bailable warrants were issued against them on December 22, 2020, and January 11, 2021, but they failed to appear in the case.

The order says in view of this, the court has reason to believe that the accused are intentionally concealing themselves to appear before the court to face the trial and they cannot be served through non-bailable warrants. In order to expedite the case, the proclamation under Section 82 of the CrPC be issued against the accused returnable for February 11, 2021.

The case dates back to 2015 when Indian Overseas Bank filed a complaint with the CBI regarding the alleged fraud. The bank alleged that the accused had taken loans of crores from the bank by creating fake companies. The CBI registered an FIR against eight persons, including four retired officials of Indian Overseas Bank, in the case. The CBI filed a chargesheet in the case against all these accused on September 30, 2019, under Sections 120-B, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC and Sections 13 (2) and 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. It was mentioned by the CBI that Indian Overseas Bank was defrauded by the accused by conspiring together and misrepresenting the facts and the bank was cheated causing wrongful loss.