The Supreme Court on Monday directed Hi Tech Group chairman Tirupati Panigrahy to pay back at least half of his investors before seeking bail.
When the bail application of Panigrahy came up for hearing, the Crime Branch submitted affidavits of 19 investors. The SC examined the documents and asked the real estate group to pay at least half of the total investors after which it will consider the bail plea.
The next day of hearing has been posted to January 6, 2014. On the last date of hearing, the group had submitted 148 affidavits of investors claiming that they had either be refunded or given land.
“Our counsel, however, presented before the apex court that the total number of investors could be over 4,000. Then the SC asked us to go in for a random verification within five days. The CB officials could track down 19 of 25 people selected in a random manner and submitted that the earlier affidavits were prepared under duress,” Additional Director General of Crime Branch BK Sharma said.The 19 affidavits were presented before the SC which then directed Hi Tech chairman to pay up first. In October, the apex court had asked him to give land to investors and then seek bail.