Supreme Court grants bail to SRS group CMD Anil Jindal in SFIO case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to SRS Group chairperson and managing director Anil Jindal and two of his associates in connection with a ₹770 crore fraud case being probed by Serious Fraud Investigation Officer (SFIO) [Anil Jindal v Serious Fraud Investigation Office]..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar passed the order today after noting that they have been in jail for 6.5 years and the trial is still at its initial stage."We direct that the appellants, namely, Anil Jindal, Bishan Bansal, and Nanak Chand Tayal, will be released on bail during the pendency of the prosecution/trial ... on terms and conditions to be fixed by the trial court. The appellants, namely, Anil Jindal, Bishan Bansal, and Nanak Chand Tayal will provide mobile numbers on which they can be contacted by the Officers of the Department of Serious Fraud Investigation Office to ascertain their whereabouts, while they are on bail. If required and necessary, they shall appear before the Investigating Officer", it ordered.The accused were directed to surrender their passports with the trial court, provide details of their immovable assets and bank accounts, and not alienate or transfer any of them. .The Faridabad Police had in 2018 arrested Jindal and his associates from a hotel in Delhi for cheating and duping investors.The Punjab and Haryana High Court had on April 30 this year cancelled their bail in the matter, leading to the instant appeal before the top court.The SFIO contended that the SRS Group, which deals in jewellery and real estate, fabricated balance sheets and other financial documents to fraudulently get credit facilities from banks and then siphoning off those loan amounts..The Supreme Court directed the concerned court in Gurugram to proceed with the trial expeditiously, and said it is entitled to cancel the bail granted in case adjournments are sought by the accused..Senior Advocates Maninder Singh and Pramod Kumar Dubey briefed by advocates Vivek Jain and Indresh Upadhyay appeared for Anil Jindal along with advocates Suchitra Kumbhat, Sadiq Noor, Adv. Rajat Jain, Ayush Sachan, Rupraj Banerjee and Ramachandranuni B Siddhartha.Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj with Aavocates Amrish Kumar, Anuj Udupa, Chitransh Sharma, Vinayak Sharma, Sanskriti Pathak and Sarthak Karol appeared for the SFIO.Advocates Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Runjhun Garg, Himanshu Vats, Angad Pahal, Lavam Tyagi, Ishaan George, and Santosh Kumar Prasad appeared for accused Bishan Bansal.Senior Advocate Rakesh Kumar Khanna and advocates Kaushal Yadav, Aditya P Khanna, Nandlal Kumar Mishra, Onkar Nath Sharma and Ritul Tandon appeared for accused Nanak Chand Tayal..[Read order]