MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday issued notice to Central Bureau of Investigation (
CBI) on a bail plea made by
Vipul Ambani, president (Finance) of
Nirav Modi's Firestar Diamond, who is in judicial custody in connection with a multi-crore fraud case filed by Punjab National Bank. Ambani, 49, pleaded that his arrest is illegal as he was detained illegally beyond 24 hours.
Ambani's counsel Pranav Badheka appeared but the hearing was posted to March 27 for CBI to also be represented. A special CBI trial court had on March 5 sent Ambani and five others to judicial custody till March 19.
He was arrested on February 21 from his Altamount Road residence in connection with the multi-crore
PNB fraud where diamond merchant Nirav Modi is the main accused. The FIR lodged by PNB is for offences of criminal conspiracy to cheat and under criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Ambani's plea says that he is a Chemical Engineering graduate from University of Massachusets, USA and served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at Tower Capital & Securities Pvt Ltd and has also served as Executive Assistant to Managing Director of Reliance Industries Ltd.
The bail plea is on the ground that his constitutional rights were violated as he was not produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of being arrested. Even section 57 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides that no person can be detained for more that 24 hours without such person being taken before a magistrate. His case is that he was "summoned on February 19 in the morning and then detained and not permitted to go out of the CBI office and was only produced on February 21 around 3.45 pm thereby being illegally detained beyond 24 hours."
Vipul Ambani
