The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit progress report within three days on the probe initiated two years ago against the officers of the BEML Limited, a public sector undertaking, on the charge of alleged inflated sales of Rs. 894 crore.
Justice N. Ananda passed the order during the hearing of the petition filed by K. Subramanyam Sastry, a shareholder of the company, seeking a direction to include the names of V.R.S. Natarajan, Chairman and Managing Director of BEML Limited, and other functional directors of the company.
The court directed the CBI to submit the report on February 6 as the CBI counsel sought three days' time to submit the report.
The CBI had begun investigation after registering the first information report (FIR) on May 31, 2010, and it had it had named S. Venkatesan, General Manager (Internal Audit); B.R. Viswanathan, the then General Manager (Marketing); and S. Venkataraman, the then General Manager (Marketing and Finance).
The petitioner had pointed out that the report of the Comptroller and Accountant General of India (CAG) submitted to Parliament indicated that the company had inflated its sales figure during 2005-08 even though there was no such sale in reality. The FIR filed by the CBI states that the accused officers would have been benefited by way of incentives due to inflated sales figure.
Set aside
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B.V. Nagarathna on Thursday set aside the CBI probe ordered by a single judge bench into the case of murder of Mangalore-based advocate Naushad Kashimji, and remanded the matter back to the single judge for fresh hearing.
Disposing of an appeal filed by the State Home Department, the Bench said that the single judge had passed the order without coming to the definite conclusion that there was a prima facie case to direct the CBI to probe the case. The single judge had on July 14, 2011 passed the order on a petition filed by Nusrath Jahan, wife of Naushad. The petitioner had challenged the investigation by Mangalore police, and had alleged that some police officers were responsible for the murder of Naushad Kashimji. However, in the appeal, Home Department claimed that single judge's order has not given any finding about any lapses on the investigation conducted by the State police.
Notice
In another case, the Bench ordered issue of notices to the Union and State Governments in a PIL seeking direction to the authorities to waive loans of arecanut growers who suffered crop loss due to yellow leaf disease, in Shimoga, Udupi and Chickmagalur districts. The petitioner is Sachin Meega, a resident of Chikmagalur.
