Supreme Court Questions CBI, SEBI Over Reluctance to Probe Indiabulls (Samman Capital) Allegations

The Supreme Court has questioned the "reluctance" of the CBI and SEBI to investigate allegations of "suspicious transactions" against Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited, now known as Samman Capital Limited. On Wednesday, the court ordered the agency's director to meet with SEBI, SFIO, and ED to look into the matter.

A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan, and N. Kotiswar Singh also pulled up the MCA for clubbing various offenses committed by IHFL. The bench also came down heavily upon the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for "double standards" adopted by the market regulator on the issue of its jurisdiction to probe into irregularities in different cases.

The apex court asked what was preventing officials from filing FIRs and investigating the allegations. It stated that the closure of cases by the MCA would not be an obstacle to the meeting scheduled between the CBI Director and officials from SEBI, SFIO, and ED, and that all allegations made by the Citizens Whistleblower Forum, an NGO represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, would be investigated.

The apex court asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to produce the original records of the complaints filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate the allegations against IHFL and also to explain the grounds on which the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had refused to investigate the said complaint.

It directed that a senior officer of the Delhi Police EOW should appear with all the original records on the next date of hearing on December 3. During the hearing, Justice Kant, the Chief Justice-designate of India, said, "We are surprised to see that the CBI has adopted a very calm attitude and approach in this case. We have never seen such a friendly attitude as was seen in this case before. We are saddened to see this."