Hyderabad: In a setback to TD MP Y. Sujana Chowdary, the Telangana High Court rejected his plea to set aside the notices issued by the CBI, Bengaluru, to appear before it in a case related to Best and Crompton Engineering Projects Ltd, Chennai. The court offered him some relief when it directed the CBI not to arrest the petitioner and not to subject him to physical or mental torture.
Justice T. Amarnath Goud was dealing with the petition of Mr Chowdary, challenging the notices under Section 160 and 161 of the CrPC, issued by the CBI to appear before it on May 4. While the court did not issue directions exempting Mr Chowdary from appearing before the CBI, it changed the date of the appearance from May 4 to May 27 and 28, between 10 am and 5 pm with a one-hour lunch break.
The court changed the date on considering Mr Chowdary’s submission that he was busy with election work. The court did not go into contentions raised by Mr Chowdary, that he was neither a shareholder nor a director in the said company and the CBI, Bengaluru, has no jurisdiction to issue notices to him as he was a resident of New Delhi and Hyderabad.
The case pertains to Best & Crompton Engineering Pvt Ltd defrauding banks of Rs 364 crore during 2010-13. The loan money was transferred through bogus invoices and shell companies to Mahal Hotels. Both Best & Crompton and Mahal Hotels are part of the Sujana Group of Companies whose promoter is Mr Chowdary.
