HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday granted conditional bail to Nowhera Shaik of Heera group of companies. The Court transferred all the cases relating to multi-crore investment fraud involving Heera group of companies to the Serious Fraud Investigation Agency (SFIA) under the Companies Act, 2013.
Justice G Sri Devi passed this order in the petition filed by Nowhera Shaik seeking stay of all further proceedings in the FIRs registered against her and the company in various police stations in the city and across the State. It was alleged that she had indulged in multi-crore investment fraud by collecting thousands of crores of rupees from the public with promise of high monthly returns.
During the course of the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel urged the court to direct the authorities concerned to forward the complaints lodged by several depositors to the SFIA in terms of the Companies Act since it is the competent authority to detect fraud and investigate on it, and not by the police department by invoking various sections of the IPC and the Depositors Act. As the petitioner’s company is incorporated under the Companies Act, the agreement between the company and investors is purely contractual and in accordance with the Act 2013, he added and urged the court to declare the registering of several FIRs against the petitioner’s company as illegal.
On the other hand, the government counsel submitted that there were several cases registered against the petitioner and her company in various parts of the country, including 10 cases in Telangana. In some of the cases, she was granted bail by the lower court. Already, charge sheets were filed before the trial court, he added.
After hearing the case and perusing the material on record, the judge granted bail to the petitioner in remaining cases with a condition to deposit `5 crore and to produce two sureties. Further, the petitioner is directed not to leave the country without prior permission from the court.