The Bombay High Court yesterday criticised the city police for their failure to file a charge sheet even after a year regarding the probe into the Ponzi scheme launched by controversial online entity SpeakAsia Association.
Special Public Prosecutor Pradip Gharat alleged that Rs 2,600 crore from 20 lakh investors were misappropriated by the Singapore-based online company.
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Justice R C Chavan disapproved of the police’s ways and said, “By clubbing all the cheating cases and by flooding the chargesheet to such an extent that the trial will never see the light of day, the investigating agency is giving an impression that it is in connivance with the fraudsters in duping the common man.”
The judge further felt that this trial was being slowed down by the sheer magnitude of the people accused at once. He stated, “The agencies put so many eggs in the basket that the basket breaks. But nobody gets convicted. When will the trial begin? You can carry out your postmortem later. Your actions are helping fraudsters.”
The observations were made during the hearing of an anticipatory bail plea filed by one Ashok Bhairwani, a member of the All India Speak Asia Panelist Association. Bhairwani has been named as one of the main conspirators involved in duping several persons. In his bail plea, Bhairwani said that he too was a victim of the fraud and has lost Rs 64,000 by investing in this company.u00a0