Justice R C Chavan, last week, asked Nitin Mangal, the applicant, to appear before Cyber Crime Branch of Mumbai police who are investigating the case and answer its queries.
According to Indiabulls, due to an adverse research report by the company for which Mangal was working, Indiabulls share price dropped on August 8 last year. Further, it says, it had been asked to shell out USD 40,000, if the reports were to be withheld from publication for a day.
However, Mangal contends in his anticipatory bail plea that the drop in the share price was due to shortcomings in the accounts and corporate governance practises of Indiabulls.
His lawyer Amit Dube submitted that Mangal was just a co-author of the report written by Niraj Monga. Both worked for Canada-based Veritas Investment Research Corporation, which makes its reports available only to its subscribers.
"If the company was in the business of research and making reports, it is enigmatic that the company was ready to hold the report for a prospective subscriber who was expected to cough up USD 40,000 as subscription," the Court observed last week, posting Mangal's bail plea for order for tomorrow.