Court nod to close BJP neta's bank scam case

MUMBAI: A magistrate's court Tuesday accepted a closure report submitted by the CBI in a Rs 104-crore bank fraud case against BJP politician and chief MD of Tenet Exim Mohit Kamboj and others.
In the report, the CBI said there was lack of sufficient evidence on record to prosecute the accused in the fraud case lodged by the Central Bank of India. The magistrate had rejected the CBI's first attempt on Oct 23 to file the closure report, saying the accused were liable to be prosecuted for alleged offences related to cheating, forgery of valuable security and other acts.
After an accused had appealed against the Oct order, a special CBI judge had set it aside on Feb 9 and said the matter was to be remanded back to the magistrate's court and the plea for closure was to be decided after giving the CBI an opportunity to be heard.
The CBI had registered a case following an FIR lodged by the deputy general manager of the Central Bank of India against Tenet Exim and its directors, guarantors, corporate guarantors and chartered accountant.
It was alleged the company, through its directors, unknown public servants of the bank and others committed cheating and forgery by submitting false documents. The diversion of funds caused wrongful loss of Rs 103.8 crore to the bank.
While rejecting the first attempt of the CBI to file a closure report, the magistrate had said the company allegedly resorted to criminal acts, which included falsely showing on paper only purchase transactions of goods and submitting false documents.
The magistrate had directed the investigating officer to file an appropriate report for several offences, including cheating and criminal conspiracy. The order was challenged by businessman Siddhant Bagla, an accused.
Setting aside the order on Feb 9, the special CBI court judge had said: "... (A) magistrate is empowered to direct further investigations. However, the magistrate cannot give direction to file a report indicating the involvement of the accused for a particular offence."