Nagpur: Shaken up by the High Court ruling questioning the legality of filing of FIR in the multi-crore ‘Dabba’ trading scam, city police have decided to move Supreme Court and challenge the judgment. The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court had in recent verdict said that police had no authority as per the Securities Contract Act to initiate FIR and carry on investigation against the accused in the ‘Dabba’ trading scam and also held in some cases that no prima-facie evidence was available against the accused persons. The ruling left the city police bosses red-faced.
However, the Commissioner of Police Dr K Venkatesham, while interacting with journalists as part of Diwali Milan programme on Friday said that they will challenge the verdict after studying the High Court judgment in detail. “We are waiting for the judgment copy and after studying it, the police will challenge the judgment with new observations,” said the top cop.
Notably, the High Court had held that Police and Economic Offences Wing (EoW) inherently lacked powers to initiate action and register FIR in ‘Dabba’ trading scam against the accused for alleged violations under Securities Contract Act, 1956 and the authorities specified under Section 26 alone could initiate action. Central or State Government or the Securities and Stock Exchange Board of India (SEBI) or the recognized Stock Exchange, alone could initiate action by filing a complaint before the Special Court.
“Police cannot make investigation into this offence on the basis of the report filed by a Police Head Constable or any other police officer as a police officer is not included in the meaning conveyed by the expression ‘any person’ contained in Section 26 of the Act,” the High Court had observed.
