Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Wednesday declined a plea by M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Ltd to quash FIR registered by CBI against the company in alleged insurance scam regarding awarding of contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees in erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The CBI has registered FIR in connection with corruption allegations levelled by former Satypal Malik in the awarding of contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees.
“…allegations levelled against the petitioner and other government officials as well as against RGICL (Reliance General Insurance Company Limited) which are required to be probed in detail and at this stage when investigation has not reached at the final stage and the investigating agency is still in the process of gathering evidence, the FIR cannot be quashed,” a bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal said.
In its plea, M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Ltd said that there are no allegations against it in the FIR in respect of the commission of any offence whatsoever. It said that the premium paid to the RGICL was deducted from the salaries of the Government employees and an amount of Rs.61.44 crores was paid to M/S RGICL as first instalment of premium and out of that premium, an amount of Rs.4,36,07,033/ has been admittedly received by M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited as brokerage.
“The second contention raised by the petitioner is that once the ACB had enquired in detail the similar allegations, the impugned FIR could not have been registered by the respondent No.1 (CBI) at the instance of respondent No.3 (J&K government),” the court said, adding, “The perusal of the communication dated 23.03.2022 addressed by respondent No.2 (ACB) to respondent No.1 (CBI) reveals that the respondent No.1 (CBI) was requested to investigate the matter only after the reported submitted by the ACB was considered and the learned Senior AAG appearing for respondent No.3 (govt) is right in his submission that in order to get fair, independent and transparent investigation, it was thought proper by the respondent No.3 to get the matter regarding allotment of contract investigated independently as huge public money was involved.” This Court, the bench said, has examined the record produced by the CBI and has found that the CBI is not only investigating the allotment of contract to M/S RGICL but also the engagement of M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Ltd as insurance broker.
“This Court would not like to comment in respect of the mode and manner in which the petitioner was engaged as insurance broker at this stage because the matter is still being investigated by the respondent No.1,” the court said, adding, “This aspect of the case was never enquired into by the ACB, J&K. Therefore, the contention of the petitioner in this regard too is not sufficient for quashing of the impugned FIR.”
The third contention raised by the petitioner company, the court said, is that there is a delay of four years in registration of FIR.
“Simply on the ground that the FIR has been registered after a huge delay, the same cannot be quashed as earlier the matter was being enquired into by the ACB which submitted its reports on 27.11.2019 and 08.02.2022,” the court said, adding, “After considering the report submitted by the ACB, the matter was referred to the respondent No.1 (CBI) for investigation …on 23.03.2022. Therefore, it cannot be said that there is a huge and unexplained delay on the part of respondents in registration of FIR. This contention of the petitioner too is rejected.”
While declining to show indulgence for the purpose of quashing the FIR, the court however directed CBI to conclude the investigation of the case as expeditiously as possible. “The petitioner-company is directed to participate in the investigation so as to enable the respondent No.1 (CBI) to conclude the investigation expeditiously.”
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