Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa dismissed criminal writ petition filed by Chowgule and Company Private Limited seeking to transfer investigation of First Information Report (FIR) into Rs 1,075 crore cheating case registered by the Economic Offences Cell (EOC) of Goa Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The petitioner had also sought direction to the CBI to conduct fair and impartial investigation and submit report in a time-bound manner.
In June this year, the EOC had registered a case against five persons including the then director of Chowgule and Company Pvt Ltd Vijay Chowgule, Pradip Mahatme of Altinho, Pratap Shirke from UK and known and unknown associates of Fort Group based in Ireland and Maria Christine Pucher of Leichtenstein for allegedly cheating the European shipping company of over Rs 1,000 crore.
A complaint in this regard was filed by CCPL through its authorised representative Harsh Shah, a legal executive at the company.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioner, Adv Rizwan Merchant said that the manner in which the application for anticipatory bail applications filed by the accused was handled by the investigating officer (IO), free and impartial investigation by the IO can never be expected and hence this was a fit case for transfer of investigation to CBI. He submitted that the FIR was registered after a delay of two months from the date when the petitioner had first made a complaint to the IO. Even after registration of FIR on June 14, 2024, there had been no progress in the investigation.
Additional public prosecutor Nikhil Vaze told the Court that the EOC was a specialised unit and conducting investigation of non-banking financial cases and cases which are directed by the higher authorities. There are 36 criminal cases which were pending with EOC Police Station and 15 different high profile and technical cases were investigated by the EOC Police Station.
APP Vaze further said that considering the complex nature of the investigation and despite the complainant not cooperating, every possible effort is being made to investigate into the FIR and that the investigation will be conducted in a free, fair and impartial manner.