FIR against ex-Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch, HC stays special court’s order

Bombay High Court stays special court order directing FIR against ex-Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and five other officials for alleged stock market fraud and regulatory violations

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday stayed for four weeks a special court’s order directing FIR against ex-Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and five other officials for alleged stock market fraud and regulatory violations, noting the order was passed mechanically.

A single bench of Justice Shivkumar Dige said the special court order of March 1 was passed mechanically without going into details and without attributing any specific role to the accused.

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“Hence, the order is stayed till next date. Four weeks time is given to the complainant in the case (Sapan Shrivastava) to file his affidavit in reply to the petitions,” the HC said.

The HC’s judgement came on petitions filed by Buch, three current whole-time SEBI directors – Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney and two BSE officials – Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ramamurthy and its former chairman and public interest director Pramod Agarwal.

The pleas had sought quashing of the order passed by the special court directing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to register an FIR against them pertaining to certain allegations of fraud committed in 1994 while listing a company on the BSE. The pleas said the order was illegal and arbitrary.

The special court had passed the order on the complaint filed by Sapan Shrivastava, a media reporter, seeking investigation into the alleged offences committed by the accused, involving large scale financial fraud, regulatory violations and corruption.