The Supreme Court has asked the Chairman of Samsung company Lee Kun Hee to appear before a trial court in Ghaziabad within six weeks in connection with a case relating to his failure to pay to the tune of 1.4 million US dollars to a complainant.
A Bench of Justices C.K. Prasad and Pinaki Chandra Ghose, passed this order while dismissing his special leave petition seeking to quash the non bailable warrant in a criminal case filed against him and pending before a court in Ghaziabad.
The Bench, however, said “the warrant of arrest issued against the petitioner shall not be executed for a period of six weeks. In the meanwhile, the petitioner shall appear before the trial court and seek bail and/or exemption from appearance in accordance with law.” The Bench said it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case pending before the trial court.
A complaint was filed by an Indian company, JCE consultancy, against Mr. Lee in the Ghaziabad court for allegedly cheating it to the tune of $1.4 million. As the applicant and other co-accused persons did not appear before the trial Court on Feb. 3, 2005 bailable warrants were issued against the applicant and other co-accused persons. Thereafter, on March 16, 2005, the Court issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against the applicant and other co-accused persons, to be executed through the CBI and sent to Interpol for issuing Red Corner notice for their extradition.
Their revision petitions and appeals to the Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court were dismissed. Thereafter the complainant pleaded before the trial court for execution of the NBW and necessary orders were issued. Again the petitioners approached the Allahabad High Court which called the Samsung Chairman an absconder and fugitive and dismissed the appeal. The present appeal before the apex court was directed against this order dated May 30, 2013.
