Adarsh Scam: Supreme Court to Hear Serious Fraud Office's Plea on February 4

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on February 4, a plea of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) challenging the Delhi High Court order granting interim bail to founder and managing director of Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society, Mukesh Modi and Rahul Modi.

Mukesh and Rahul Modi were arrested by SFIO for allegedly siphoning off over Rs 200 crore.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna considered the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for SFIO, that the plea needed to be heard on urgent basis.

"On mentioning, the matter is taken on board. List the matter on February 4 before the appropriate bench as per the roster," the bench said.

On January 14, the apex court had said it would examine whether the Delhi High Court was competent to grant bail to Modi's against whom the SFIO has initiated prosecution for allegedly siphoning off over Rs 200 crore.

The top court had asked Rahul Modi, who was arrested by the SFIO and granted bail by the high court in the case, to reply as how a habeas corpus (unlawful detention or imprisonment) petition could be filed when he was on remand by a judicial order.

The SFIO, which comes under the Corporate Affairs Ministry, mainly probes white collar crimes.

It had asked Modi to satisfy it whether the Delhi High Court was correct in granting him bail even when a bail application was not filed.

SFIO had contended that it was a serious financial fraud case and the high court had set aside the order of a Gurgaon special court.

It had said that the order was not under challenge and the high court does not have the territorial jurisdiction to do so.

The SFIO had challenged the December 20 order of the High Court by which it had granted interim bail to Modis, who were arrested by the agency.

It had observed that the arrest of the duo on December 10 last year was "absolutely illegal and patently suffers from vice of lack of legal sanction and jurisdiction".

Mukesh Modi and his family members were allegedly running Ponzi schemes, duping over 20 lakh depositors. The Ahmedabad-based Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society had started its operations in 1999.

The deposits collected from members of the Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society were allegedly used for the benefit of a few family members belonging to the Mukesh Modi family.