The Delhi High Court on Thursday enhanced the security amount from Rs 2 crore to Rs 6 crore to be deposited by meat exporter Moin Qureshi, an accused in a cheating and corruption case, to travel to the UAE and Pakistan, following a plea by the CBI.
Justice Sunil Gaur increased the amount after noting that a co-accused in the case, businessman Pradeep Koneru, was allowed to travel abroad on furnishing of a security deposit of Rs 6 crore.
The court passed the order on the plea of CBI which requested that the security deposited be increased from Rs 2 crore to Rs 6 crore and also contended the trial court ought to have mandated higher amount as was done by the high court for a co-accused in the case.
Qureshi, on February 1, was allowed by a trial court to travel to the UAE from February 15-23 for attending the Gulf Food Festival and from March 6-20 to Pakistan to attend his niece's wedding.
The high court said it deems it appropriate to put Qureshi on a par with co-accused Koneru and modified the trial court's February 1 order to the extent of enhancing the security amount from Rs 2 crore to Rs 6 crore.
The case was first listed on Wednesday before Justice Chandra Shekhar who had sent it to Justice Najmi Waziri as he was hearing a similar matter related to the co-accused.
During the day, the matter was listed before Justice Waziri who said he cannot hear it and referred it to the chief justice for marking it to some other bench.
In post-lunch session, the matter came up for hearing before Justice Gaur who heard arguments of the counsel for the CBI and Qureshi and later passed the order.
The CBI counsel said the role of Qureshi and Koneru in the cheating case were similar and the same condition should be imposed on them.
Qureshi's counsel said there was no ground for the CBI to seek enhancement of the security amount and he has also approached the trial court for reducing the deposit from Rs 2 crore to Rs 50 lakh.
On February 1, the trial court had directed Qureshi to furnish an additional security of Rs 2 crore in the form of bank guarantee and warned that in case of violation of any of the conditions imposed, the amount would be forfeited.
He was also asked to surrender his passport within 24 hours of his arrival in the country.
The ED and the CBI had opposed before the lower court Qureshi's plea to travel abroad on the apprehension that he may not return to face the trial.
The CBI had urged the trial court that stringent security conditions be put on him as was done in the case of the co-accused by the high court.
Qureshi had sought permission of the trial court to travel to the UAE from February 9-24 to meet buyers and attend the Gulf Food Festival for purposes of promoting and growing his business. He also urged the court to allow him to travel to Lahore and Karachi in March to attend a relative's wedding and to permit him to retain his passport between the trips to obtain visa for Pakistan.
The court had in 2017 granted him bail in a case in which the ED had alleged that Qureshi was involved in hawala transactions through Delhi-based hawala operators Parvez Ali of Turkman Gate and M/s South Delhi Money Changer (DAMINI) in Greater Kailash-1.
The ED has challenged the bail order in the high court which is pending.
The CBI had lodged a case against him after the ED and Income Tax department's probe into money laundering allegations against Qureshi, in which ongoing investigations have allegedly revealed involvement of senior public servants.
The probe agency had earlier alleged that money has been sent abroad by the accused from one of the witnesses in the investigation through hawala channels in exchange for help provided to him in a CBI case.
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