Economic offences weaken democracy, says HC, dismisses Malvinder's plea

Economic offences corrode the fabric of democracy and are committed with total disregard to the rights and interest of the nation, the Delhi High Court Monday observed while dismissing a plea by ex-Fortis promoter Malvinder Mohan Singh, arrested for alleged misappropriation of funds from Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).

The high court rejected Malvinder's plea challenging the criteria laid down by the high powered committee for granting interim bail to under trial prisoners on the ground of prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The high powered committee, headed by a senior judge of the Delhi High Court, was formed on the order of the Supreme Court in March to lay down guidelines to decongest jails and prevent spread of the coronavirus.

Justice Anu Malhotra said Malvinder's submission that there has been an arbitrary and unjust classification made by the committee vide minutes of March 28 as adhered to till the minutes of July 31, qua offences falling under cases under the PMLA Act and those investigated by the CBI/ ED/ NIA / Special Cell of Delhi Police and terror-related cases and those under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, cannot be accepted as it cannot be contended that these offences have not been distinguished from other offences on the basis of any intelligible differentia.

It is thus, essential to observe that the release of an accused on bail or on interim bail in a non-bailable offence, which he/she is alleged to have committed, is not a vested right in any accused/convict and falls within the discretionary jurisdiction of the court concerned to grant or not to grant the prayer of an accused seeking bail or interim bail, the high court said.

It added, It is essential to observe that economic offences are offences which corrode the fabric of democracy and are committed with total disregard to the rights and interest of the nation and are committed by breach of trust and faith and are against the national economy and national interest and that such nature of offences have not been considered by the high powered committee vide its minutes dated March 28 to fall within the ambit of the grant of discretionary interim bail by the factum simpliciter of the prevalence of the Covid-19 corona pandemic, cannot be termed to be an arbitrary exercise of discretion.

The court said there is nothing that prevents Malvinder from seeking the remedy of filing a bail application in accordance with law and the same has also been explicitly observed by the committee while rejecting his representation against the March 28 minutes.

Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra and advocate Chaitanya Gosain, appearing for the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), opposed Malvinder's plea saying he has not chosen to file any application for regular bail and is rather insisting for grant of interim bail taking advantage of the present pandemic situation.

Malvinder (46), his brother Shivinder, also a former Fortis Healthcare promoter, former CMD of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) Sunil Godhwani (58), former CEO of REL Kavi Arora (48) and former CFO of RFL Anil Saxena were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police for allegedly diverting RFL's money and investing in other companies.

The EOW registered an FIR in March last year after it received a complaint from RFL's Manpreet Suri against Shivinder, Godhwani and others, alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies.