In a new development in the LIS financial fraud case the accused persons have moved the Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court seeking a directive not to accept the second chargesheet submitted by the police.
The police had filed a chargesheet before the court against the nine accused in case, wherein funds to the tune of `447.63 crore had been siphoned off. The police had earlier filed the final report against seven accused in the case. After certain new revelations, further investigation was carried out with the permission of the High Court, the prosecution submitted before the court.
The accused have been charged under IPC Section 403 (misappropriation of property), Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and various sections of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. The accused allegedly conducted their business under the guise of dealing in government lottery tickets, with the clandestine intention to commit a huge financial fraud.
A similar petition was dismissed by the Kerala High Court and the Supreme Court. So the accused have no right to file the petition, the prosecution said. However, counsel for the petitioners M K Damodaran submitted that the police had conducted a reinvestigation instead of the further investigation as directed by the High Court.