A SPECIAL court Friday stayed proceedings against diamond merchant Mehul Choksi and a co-accused in a bank fraud case, pending before the magistrate court.
The special court said that the magistrate court had in April issued summons to the seven accused in the case, including Choksi, but the order does not reflect any opinion of the court.
Lawyers for Choksi and co-accused, Aniyath Nair, had approached the special court against the magistrate court order.
“The reasons are necessary not only for the litigants before the court but also for the superior courts to know the thought process of the learned trial court. The court expects at least some brief outline of the reasons which leads the Trial Court to form an opinion to issue summons in the case. Therefore, in view of this prima facie error of being no reasons in support of the order of issuance of process, the further proceedings…. pending before the court….are hereby stayed qua the present applicant Nos.5 (Nair) and 2 (Choksi) till next date,” the special court said.
The case relates to a complaint filed in 2022, alleging wrongful losses caused to a consortium of banks led by Canara Bank to the tune of Rs 55.27 crore.
Choksi, two companies— Bezel Jewellery India Ltd, Gitanjali Gems, and four other persons were named as accused by the CBI.
The CBI had alleged that loans granted by the banks for manufacturing and sales of gold and diamond studded jewellery, were diverted by the accused.
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The magistrate court had passed an order summoning the accused and issued a non-bailable warrant against Choksi, who is currently facing proceedings in Belgium, where he is detained on an extradition request by Indian authorities, for investigation of the Rs 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank bank consortium fraud case.
The lawyers for the accused, Rahul Agarwal and Jasmin Purani, had submitted that the magistrate court order taking cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the CBI was done ‘mechanically’, without giving any reasons. They also claimed that the order was passed in a ‘lightning speed’ on the same day when the chargesheet, running into thousands of pages, was put before the court, without perusal.
