The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the release of Bhushan Steel’s erstwhile promoter Neeraj Singal on bail. Mr. Singal was arrested by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) for allegedly siphoning off ₹2000-crore funds.
Bond, sureties
A Bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and Vinod Goel said Mr. Singal would be released from the custody subject to his furnishing a personal bond of ₹5 lakh and two sureties of ₹2 lakh each.
The court also declined an oral plea made by the SFIO to stay the operation of the interim order for a week.
While granting relief to Mr. Singal, the Bench imposed several conditions, including that he would not influence witnesses or hamper the investigation. The Bench said the interim bail will continue till an investigation report is filed in the Special Court.
The petition by Mr. Singal has termed his arrest as illegal and violative of his fundamental rights.
The plea has also challenged certain provisions of the Companies Act on grant of bail to persons arrested under the Act, claiming they imposed “unreasonable restrictions”.
The petition has claimed that his arrest was illegal as no grounds for arrest were communicated to him orally or in writing by the probe agency at the time of arrest.
The High Court on August 27 had said that on the face of it, it does not find “frivolous” the plea by Mr. Singal against powers of arrest of the SFIO.
