BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday stayed the warrant issued against the five accused by the Special Court in a case registered by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) with regard to the Kingfisher Airlines Limited (KAL) for alleged violation of the provisions of the Companies Act. The accused were K Ravi Nedungadi, UB Group Chief Financial Officer, A Harish Bhat, Treasurer and Director, United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd., A Raghunathan, Chief Financial Officer of KAL, Bharath Veeraraghavan, Company Secretary of KAL, and Darshana Kadakia, Chartered Accountant.
Hearing the petitions filed by these accused, praying that the court quash the proceedings against them, Justice K N Phaneendra stayed the warrant till the next date of hearing and ordered notice to the SFIO.
The SFIO had registered a case against fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is fifth accused in the case, and 18 others including the Kingfisher Airlines Ltd under the Companies Act on the charges of fraud. On December 27, 2017, Senior Assistant Director, SFIO, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, had filed a complaint with the Special Court against the 19 accused and prayed the court to summon the accused, try them for the offences and punish them with maximum sentences.
BMTF to upload FIRs on its website
The Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) on Tuesday gave an undertaking before the High Court that it will upload the FIRs registered by it on its official website. An affidavit to this effect has been placed before the division bench of Acting Chief Justice HG Ramesh and Justice PS Dinesh Kumar by the SP, BMTF. This was in response to a PIL seeking directions to the ACB and BMTF to upload the FIRs on their websites within 24 hours of registration of the same in compliance with Supreme Court orders.