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Morepen Laboratories directors to face criminal trial

In a major ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday directed some executive directors of the Morepan Laboratories to face the criminal trial before a Delhi CBI court.

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In a major ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday directed some executive directors of the Morepan Laboratories to face the criminal trial before a Delhi CBI court.

On the basis of an information in 1999 that two chartered accountants had opened several fictitious accounts in some banks  in the names of certain concerns, to facilitate the diversion of bank finance availed by various public limited companies, the CBI started the probe.

It registered an FIR against Morepen executive directors.  Among them Sushil Suri sought quashing of the FIR saying once the company had repaid the loan to Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) along with interest, no loss was caused to the bank and, therefore, the accused executives had not committed any offence.

CBI said by forging documents to show purchase of machinery they had also defrauded the revenue by claiming depreciation on non-existent machinery.

The Delhi high court rejected the company director’s plea, which was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Suri then  moved the Supreme Court  which has upheld the HC order and observed the accused persons had not only "duped’’ PSB, they had also availed of depreciation on the machinery, which was never purchased and used by them, causing loss to the exchequer.

“It’s a serious economic offence against the society,” a bench of Justices D K Jain and H L Dattu said.

“In the final analysis, we hold that merely because the dues of the bank have been paid up, the appellant (accused) cannot be exonerated from the criminal liability,” the court held.

Therefore, the chargesheet against him cannot be quashed. 

The top court asked the trial court to start the trial “as expeditiously as possible without being influenced by any observations” made by the high court or the Supreme court.

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