NEW DELHI: Businessman Moin Akhtar Qureshi, an accused in a black money case, has been allowed to travel abroad for business purposes by a Delhi court on the condition that he would not visit any country which does not have an extradition treaty with India.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pritam Singh directed meat exporter Qureshi to furnish a surety bond of Rs 10 lakh and submit his itinerary, giving details of his stay abroad before leaving the country.
The court allowed Qureshi's plea seeking permission to go to the United Kingdom, European Union and United Arab Emirates from February 15 to March 30 to attend business meetings and negotiate with buyers for exports.
"Perusal of the record reveals that accused no. 1 (Qureshi) has been allowed to go abroad earlier also... He is permitted to visit the places mentioned in the application subject to the condition if there is extradition treaty with the country named in the application i.e. UK, any country of EU and UAE for the period from February 15 to March 30 and subject to furnishing of surety bond of Rs 10 lakh," the judge said.
The court also directed him to give an undertaking that he would not visit any country which does not have extradition treaty with India.
Qureshi's plea was opposed by the IT department's counsel who said there was every chance that the accused may abscond or flee from justice. He also said Qureshi should not be allowed to go abroad as no affidavit/itinerary has been placed on record regarding the exact place and purpose of the visit.
Qureshi was summoned by the court last year as an accused in a black money case filed by IT Department for allegedly not disclosing his income of nearly Rs 20 crore.
His employee Aditya Sharma was also summoned as accused in the case earlier and both granted bail after they appeared in the court. The Delhi High Court has stayed the proceedings against Sharma.
While granting bail, the court had imposed condition on both the accused that they should not leave the country without its prior permission.
Qureshi's counsel said his client was in the business of export of meat products and if not exported immediately, the entire product becomes a waste.
Due to the nature of business, the export orders need to be finalised without loss of time and for this purpose, he has to go abroad regularly.
The court has now fixed the matter for further proceedings on April 4.
The court had earlier taken cognisance of IT department's complaint, filed under various provisions of the IT Act relating to making false statement and the IPC for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, giving or fabricating false evidence in a judicial proceeding.
The complaint had said the department was investigating the matter and had questioned Qureshi on February 15, 2014 at his residence here.
During questioning, Qureshi made a false statement when he was asked about his income and assets and those in the names of his family members or associates, it had alleged, adding, he was asked to furnish the list of lockers in banks.
Qureshi had allegedly told the officials that he had only one locker with HSBC Bank's South Extension branch but during investigation, the department claimed to have found he had 11 lockers which were in the names of his employees and associates but the articles inside belonged to him.
The lockers were operated by Qureshi's employees of A M Q Group on his instructions, it had claimed, adding that over Rs 11.26 crore in cash and jewellery worth over Rs 8.35 crore were found in the lockers.
Later, Qureshi also admitted that the money and the articles belonged to him and surrendered everything to the department, saying it could deduct the income tax from the seized money and return rest of the articles to him.
Regarding Sharma, the department had alleged that he had tried to mislead the department by making false statement regarding the lockers.