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Delhi High Court Directs Interim Release Of Bhushan Steel Ex-Promoter Neeraj Singal

Bhushan Steel’s former promoter Neeraj Singal was arrested on Aug. 8 for siphoning Rs 2,000 crore loans. 

A worker welds a steel plate in Surat, India (Photographer: Amit Bhargava/Bloomberg News)  
A worker welds a steel plate in Surat, India (Photographer: Amit Bhargava/Bloomberg News)  

The Delhi High Court today directed interim release of Bhushan Steel Ltd.’s former promoter Neeraj Singal, arrested by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office for allegedly siphoning off Rs 2,000 crore.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel declined SFIO’s oral plea for a stay of its interim order.

The court granted Singal interim relief on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh and two sureties of Rs 2 lakh each.

Singal, represented by advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, was arrested on Aug. 8 in relation to an SFIO investigation into the affairs of Bhushan Steel and Bhushan Steel and Power, pursuant to a May 2016 order of the Centre under the Companies Act.

He was the first person ever to be arrested by SFIO which was given this power only in August last year.

A habeas corpus petition, filed through advocates Ranjana Roy Gawai, Arshdeep Singh and Hemant Shah, has also challenged certain provisions of the Companies Act on the grant of bail to persons arrested under the Act, claiming that they were in violation of fundamental rights as they imposed unreasonable restrictions.

The plea has claimed that his arrest was illegal as no grounds for arrest were communicated to him orally or in writing by the probe agency at the time of arrest.