Bizman who filed insolvency petition passed away: CBI to HC

The CBI today informed the Madras High Court that a real estate businessman, who had filed an insolvency petition on claims from creditors running to crores of rupees, had passed away.

The agency said that as per the earlier direction of the specially constituted bench, it has taken over the probe.

It also said the state government had deputed a team of police officials,who had probed the case, for it's assistance.

The Court had on April 7 transferred the probe to CBI from the Tamil Nadu Police.

The matter relates to the insolvency petition filed by Arjunlal Sunderdas, in which Chief Justice Indira Banerjee had constituted a Special Bench, comprising Justices G Jayachandran and C V Karthikeyan to examine the issues in the plea.

The Special Bench, on its perusal of a police (Economic Offences Wing) report, in its order, had said the material placed before it led to a strong suspicion of offences, including money laundering.

It had opined that the EOW may not be in a position to complete the investigation with its restriction and jurisdiction.

The Madras High Court, in its March 7, 2017 order, had directed the official assignee of the court to file a police complaint in view of the enormous amount of funds and numerous transactions involved in the case.

Sunderdas was engaged in finance and real estate business under the name of "Arjunlal Sunderdas". He had incorporated four companies under the Companies Act.

Following a petition from a Mumbai-based creditor, Chitra Desai, the properties of Sunderdas were vested with the official assignee for realisation and distribution among his creditors.

Totally, 299 petitions were filed by the creditors, making claims to the tune of crores of rupees.

The EOW had registered an FIR on April 10, 2017 under various sections of the IPC against Sunderdas.

The FIR mentioned large-scale diversion of funds, including offences under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

In its status report, the EOW had said large-scale money laundering had occurred across several states, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Karnataka, New Delhi and Puducherry.

It was also reported that there had been flow of funds from the US.

The bench, after taking note of the limitations expressed by the EOW that there are interstate transactions, apart from abroad, had transferred the investigation to CBI.

The CBI today sought some time to file a status report, following which the bench posted the matter to June 29.