Stockguru: Court dismisses accused's plea for transfer of case

A Delhi court has dismissed a plea of Ullas Prabhakar, key accused in the multi-crore StockGuru scam, seeking transfer of the case to any other judge citing lack of faith in a special judge currently trying the matter.
District Judge Amar Nath denied the contention of the accused that he would not be able to get justice from the special judge as he himself was a client of StockGuru and had paid a hefty amount in the business.
"I do not find any ground to transfer the case as the petition is devoid of merit and hence the transfer petition is dismissed," the district judge said.

The district judge passed the order after taking into consideration the statements of the special judge who specifically denied that he was a client in Stockguru and had paid a hefty amount in Prabhakar's business.
The DJ also noted the submissions of advocate N K Matta, the counsel appearing for the Enforcement Directorate who said that "it can not be said that he (Ullas) would not be able to get justice from the special judge".
The counsel had opposed the transfer plea saying there was no bias on the part of the special judge as the trial has already commenced and three witnesses has already been examined.

He added that the accused has also cross-examined all the three witnesses.

In his plea, Ullhas alleged that the special judge trying his case was also one of the clients in Stockguru and had paid hefty amount in the business model.
He further alleged that when such documents were produced, the CBI judge in order to hide payments and misdeed, passed orders for registration of an FIR on the allegations that forged documents were produced in front of him for which an FIR has been registered.
Last July, Ullas had created a flutter inside a court room here and invited trouble as he showed the judge how to commit forgery easily.

Immediately after he demonstrated in the courtroom how a fraud can be attributed to a judge or an advocate, the special judge had directed Delhi Police to register a case against him and investigate the matter noting that the offence was cognizable.
The special judge is currently hearing the case filed by Enforcement Directorate against Prabhakar, his wife Priyanka Saraswat Dev and six others for alleged money laundering.
The other accused are Nitin Sinha and five companies -- SGI Research and Analysis Ltd, SGI Securities Pvt Ltd, SGI Beverages Ltd, G3 Commodities Pvt Ltd and SGI Buildtech Ltd.
In its complaint, ED has alleged that properties in the name of these accused were "proceeds of crime" and claimed that probe had revealed that 2,05,062 investors had invested Rs 493.94 crore in M/s Stockguru India.