SBI loan fraud | SC stays Bombay HC order permitting private firm chairperson to travel to UAE
The Hindu
The Supreme Court bench noted that law enforcement agencies have bad experience allowing economic offenders and fraudsters to go abroad
The Supreme Court has stayed a Bombay High Court order permitting Suman Vijay Gupta, the chairperson of a Mumbai-based private company, to travel to the UAE after taking note of a case in which she is accused of defrauding State Bank of India of ₹3,300 crore.
Mr. Gupta is the chairperson of Ushdev International Limited (UIL).
A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha on Thursday took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the law enforcement agencies have had bad experience allowing economic offenders and fraudsters to go abroad on personal undertakings as they seldom honour their undertakings and come back to face the proceedings here.
"She is the chairperson of a company which took a loan of ₹3,300 crore. The CBI is investigating (the case). After the loan was declared an NPA (non-performing asset), she renounced the citizenship of India and got the citizenship of Dominica," the top law officer said.
A look out circular (LOC) was issued and she was prevented from travelling, he said, adding that the Bombay High Court said that it will let her go if she filed an undertaking stating that she will return to face legal proceedings in the case against her.
"We have a very bad experience with the undertakings," Mr. Mehta said.
The bench said, "We will issue a notice. Pending further orders, there shall be a stay on the High Court order."
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.