Hyderabad: Expressing dismay at the CID authorities of AP for not arresting those accused in the Akshaya Gold fraud case, the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday ordered the authorities’ to place complete case details, including the status of the probe, before it by April 21. The court asked the CID to arrest all the accused in the case and oppose their bail applications by informing the trial courts that the High Court was monitoring the case.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with a PIL by the AP Akshaya Gold Customers and Agents Welfare Association, represented by V.S.S. Purnachandra Rao of Guntur district. The petitioner urged the court to appoint a committee headed by a retired judge of the HC on the lines of Agri Gold Company to bring solace to the aggrieved depositors.
When the petition come up for hearing, the bench asked counsel appearing for the company whether the company’s chairman was present in the court or not. When counsel replied in positive, the bench looked at him and said that he appeared to be a dummy and some others were running the affairs of the company. The bench questioned Krishna Prakash, counsel for AP, why was Subrahmanyam, one of the key accused, was not arrested. The court also wanted to know the number of cases pending against Subrahmanyam. Counsel replied that Subrahmanyam was accused in 17 cases and he was absconding.
The bench said “we are not happy with the investigation and it is fit case to be handed over to another agency to probe.” Pointing out that the CID has already wasted two years in probing the case, the bench directed it to place the case records. Elsewhere, while dealing with Agri Gold case, the bench told governments of AP and TS to extend cooperation and logistic support to the three-member committee constituted to oversee the auction of properties of Agri Gold.
Ravi Prasad, counsel for committee, said that both the governments were not cooperating with it. He placed the details of properties to be auctioned before the bench and sought approval to auction 10 properties in the second week of May.
