Orissa HC overturns a CBI court ruling on the accused chit fund scammer’s passport

The Orissa High Court has overturned a Special CBI Court in Bhubaneswar judgment that barred Indrajit De, the proprietor of M/S Eden Infra Projects Pvt Ltd and an accused in a chit fund case who has a charge sheet filed against him, from receiving his passport for a period of two months.

The petitioner’s fear of “flight risk,” or the possibility that he might elude the law, must be objectively evaluated, and the court must be aware of all the relevant facts and circumstances in order to do so. The Special CBI Court was instructed to release De’s passport for two months so that he could travel to the United States on April 15, by Justice SK Sahoo, a single judge bench. “Merely because a person is accused of misappropriating or siphoning off public money, it does not make him a ‘pre-trial convict,'” Sahoo stated.

Charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 were brought against De by the CBI. They allege that in 2009–2010, Rs 2.05 crore was transferred from the bank account of M/S Tower Infotech Ltd, a non-banking financial company that allegedly collected public deposits throughout Odisha by luring depositors with the promise of high interest rates, to the bank account of M/S Eden Infra Projects Pvt Ltd.

After De was granted bail and freed on October 9, 2023, the passport was turned over to the trial court. He had applied to the Special CBI Court in Bhubaneswar for a temporary two-month passport release so that he may go to the United States to care for his elderly, terminally ill mother-in-law. He had a green card, was a frequent traveler to the United States, and lived there with his wife and little daughter. However, the trial court had turned down his plea due to “flight risk.”

Despite the accusation made against the petitioner, Justice Sahoo stated, “There is hardly any reason for denying him his fundamental rights on the mechanical premise that the release of his passport involves flight risk if it is found that he has been thoroughly cooperative in the proceedings before the trial court. It is important to keep in mind that an accused person’s actions, not the offenses committed against them, determines their flight risk.

“The accused is not expected to keep himself away from professional assignments and his obligations to his family during this period,” the judge said, adding that “the trial in the case has not commenced and nobody knows how many years it would take for conclusion of the trial.”