"Utter Failure": Why Allahabad High Court slammed ED, SFIO

The Allahabad High Court last week came down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Uttar Pradesh's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for its failure to properly investigate the multi-crore 'Shine-City' scam [Shriram v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others]..A division bench of Justice Siddharth and Justice Prashant Kumar said that the entire investigation in the case against Shine City Infra Projects Private Limited for allegedly siphoning off crores from investors in Uttar Pradesh, has been carried out by the investigating agencies in the most lackadaisical manner."This Court feels that all these agencies have utterly failed to carry out the investigation properly. The entire investigation has been carried out in most lackadaisical manner. All these investigating agencies are directed to carry out proper investigation against the accused and the Companies and further put sincere efforts to find out the trail of all the money," the Court observed.The Court also directed the agencies to file a status report showing the progress of the investigation in the matter..The Court was hearing a writ petition preferred by one Shriram, an investor in the Shine City Infra Projects Private Limited, seeking a fair probe into the allegations against Shine City scam.The petitioner argued that the said company and its officers were involved in money laundering with various mafias and they collected thousands of crores under various schemes from many investors (including petitioner).It was pointed out that only after the present plea was filed, the accused involved were arrested by the agencies. However, no action has been taken by the agencies against the main accused, the petitioner submitted..The Court noted that despite its intervention in the case, the agencies had been unable to properly investigate the scam. In this regard, the Court asked the ED Director to personally look into the matter and determine as to why the investigation was not being carried out properly."We are exasperated, and are holding back any comments against the I.O., who has thoroughly failed to investigate in this scam. We would request the Director, Enforcement Directorate to personally look into it, as to why investigation was not being carried out properly and ensure that the investigation of this is carried out," the Court said.The Court also asked the Ministry of External Affairs to file a better affidavit detailing the day-to-day status of the fugitive accused's extradition..Further, the Court described the working of the agencies as shocking, as no action was being taken despite the investors and advocates giving information to the investigating agencies on their own.While posting the matter to July 1 for further hearing, the Court ordered,"The Investigating Officer would also look into as to whether the banks (from which huge amount of cash was withdrawn and deposited), had ever made any such report to the Head Officer and if yes, why no action was taken against the accused. A proper investigation should be carried out to find out as to where all the cash withdrawn from the bank has been parked/invested. E.D. shall further to find the trail of the said amount. Apart from it the trail of money through bank transactions shall also be investigated.".Advocates Akhilesh Kumar Mishra, Akhilesh Kumar Singh, Chandra Kumar Rai, Gyanendra Prakash Srivastava, Rajesh Kumar Yadav and Sunil Kumar appeared for the petitioner.Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal assisted by Advocate AK Sand appeared for the State of Uttar Pradesh.Assistant Solicitor General of India Shashi Prakash Singh with Advocate Manoj Kumar Singh appeared for the Union of India.Advocate Rohit Tripathi appeared for the Enforcement Directorate.Advocates Hari Om Sharan Tiwari, Rajiv Lochan Shukla, Sanjay Shukla, Syed Ahmed Faizan and Zaheer Asghar appeared for the company..[Read Judgment]