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Gujarat High Court refuses to quash FIR against Tehmul Sethna

FIR filed against him by Shivangi Panchal at Navrangpura Police Station for an alleged financial fraud of Rs 6.85 crore.

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The Gujarat High Court
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In what could add to the trouble of chartered accountant (CA) Tehmul Sethna, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday refused to quash an FIR filed against him by Shivangi Panchal at Navrangpura Police Station for an alleged financial fraud of Rs 6.85 crore. Sethna's name came to the limelight after one of his clients Mahesh Shah disclosed Rs 13,860 crore under the Centre's Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS), an effort to unearth black money, but defaulted on paying the first instalment of tax that was due on November 30, 2016.

In the FIR, Panchal had stated that she and her sister Parul Modi had entrusted the functioning of their trust—Environment Research and Development Centre—to Sethna, who took Modi's signature on a bank account opening form without her knowledge. The CA then opened an account in the name of the trust in a private bank. It was also alleged that transactions worth Rs 6.85 crore were made by forging Modi's signature after which Sethna was charged with cheating, dishonesty, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating, and using a forged document as genuine under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Following the complaint, Sethna was arrested by the police, but the CA was successful in securing bail from the metropolitan court, which came to be challenged before the sessions court. The sessions court quashed and set aside the metropolitan court order citing lack of jurisdiction and directed Sethna to surrender. This was challenged by the CA before the high court, which rejected his plea to quash the FIR and pending legal proceedings.

Counsel for Sethna Nandish Thackar said, "The court has refused to quash the FIR. Since the bar was on a strike on Tuesday, we will request the court on Wednesday to extend the interim stay on the sessions court order so that an appeal in the Supreme Court could be filed".

THE CHARGES

Sethna was charged with cheating, dishonesty, forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, and using a forged document as genuine under IPC

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