SC cancels bail of former Bhushan Steel CFO Nittin Johari in fraud case

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday cancelled the bail of the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Bhushan Steel Nittin Johari and remanded him back to the custody of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). 

Johari had been granted bail by the Delhi High Court in a case filed by the SFIO, which has named him and the former Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Neeraj Singal for alleged irregularities, including manipulating accounts of the company.

The Delhi High Court had on August 14 granted bail to Johari and said the main accused, Brij Bhushan Singal and Neeraj Singal, were the promoters and had actually been controlling the firm. While Brij Bhushan Singal had never been arrested, Neeraj Singal had been arrested and granted bail, and thus it made no sense to not grant Johari bail.

On May 2, Johari was arrested by the SFIO for his role in the fraudulent activities within Bhushan Steel, including filing false documents with various banks. 

The SFIO has also alleged that Johari, who as CFO signed off on the company’s accounts book till 2016-17, had indulged in maintaining inflated inventories of raw materials so as to avail enhanced working capital from lenders.

The SFIO had said that the company had obtained Letters of Credit (LoC) worth nearly ~20,000 crore by providing false documents to banks. The LoCs had been issued by Johari and other top executives of the company, the probe agency had said.