A court on Thursday turned down the Central Bureau of Investigation’s request to send Shravan Gupta, Managing Director of Emaar MGF, to jail and instead kept in abeyance the non-bailable warrant (NBW) pending against him for non-appearance in Emaar township scam till August 28.
Gupta, who was accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation to be missing for the past several months, appeared in the principal court for Central Bureau of Investigation cases. He requested the court to recall the non-bailable warrant promising that he would personally appear before the investigating agency and the court on all future dates.
Counsel for Central Bureau of Investigation Balla Ravindranath, however, insisted that he be sent on judicial remand as there was every possibility of his absconding again. Mr. Ravindranath also said Gupta was the main culprit in the scam. In support of his request, he referred to the Supreme Court sending on its own Unitech managing director Sanjay Chandra to jail in the 2 G scam.
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The lawyer for Gupta denied his client would flee as his passport was already handed over to court.
The judge kept the non-bailable warrant in abeyance till August 28 when the main case against Gupta was to come up before the court. He was asked to furnish a personal bond for Rs. 2 lakh with two sureties of like sum by that date. The non-bailable warrant would be recalled after that.
The CBI accused Gupta of misappropriating the excess amount received from villa plot buyers in the township. He was also charged with blocking 18 villa plots which were funded by a company owned by him and his wife. The agency obtained a non-bailable warrant from the court for issue of a Red Corner Notice to apprehend him as he was suspected to be in London.
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CBI told to return Gali cars
Separately, the court ordered CBI to return five cars seized from former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy in the Obulapuram Mining Company case. Reddy and OMC managing director B.V. Srinivas Reddy requested the court to release their Bell helicopter and seven cars as they would be damaged if they were not in use.
As the valuation reports of the helicopter, a Rolls Royce and a Maserati car were not yet furnished by the Road Transport Authority, the court released five other cars for a surety of Rs. 74 lakh.