Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 6: Special Judge Anticorruption RN Wattal today rejected bail application of Hilal Ahmad Mir, son of Sonaullah Mir, Chairman River Jhelum Co-operative House Building Society Limited Srinagar who was allegedly involved in Rs 250 crore scam of the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Bank.
After hearing both the sides, the court observed, “the allegations against the accused are serious in nature and speak about the volumes as to how the accused and others pursuant to criminal conspiracy under the notion of becoming rich with in short span of time and by adopting fraudulent and illegal means siphoned off huge public money”.
“The investigation in the case is in its infancy and big fishes who conspired with the petitioner/accused are evading arrest. The involvement of politicians and other influential persons in the bank scam is obvious”, the court further said, adding “the release would hamper the investigation as he may influence the material witnesses and tamper with the evidence”.
The court further observed, “moreover the bank scams nowadays have become a routine mostly in the nationalized banks of the country. Their officers in the hierarchy under conspiracy with the influential having deep roots in the corrupt system of society have siphoned off huge public money and have even fled the country to escape the liability and penal consequences”.
“Same modus-operandi has been adopted by the accused petitioner and other co accused so as to execute their despicable plans to rob the Cooperative Bank of the UT. The scam in the Cooperative Bank has assumed public importance and the same is being agitated on a daily basis in the news papers of UT”, the court further said, adding “the deceitful and wicked intend of the petitioner in conspiracy with other accused is a design to falsely impress upon the public that society is registered and lawful and doing lawful business which otherwise was not so”.
“The economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offences are presumed to have deep rooted conspiracy involving huge loss of public money needs to be viewed seriously and considered grave offence affecting economy of the country as whole thereby posing threat to the financial growth of the country”, the court said, adding “accused/petitioner has played a key role in promoting a non-existent cooperative society to steal public money from the Cooperative Bank of the UT as is evident from the police report”.
With these observations, the court rejected the bail application.
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