Cheating case against Shakti Basmati, staff Mercy plea before President: SC seeks Centre reply on time-limit

The CBI has registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against a leading rice milling company — Shakti Basmati Rice Pvt Ltd (Karnal, Haryana) — and its three directors for allegedly duping State Bank of India to the tune of `100 crore.

A senior official of the agency said accused directors Shyam Lal, Parveen Kumar and Suresh Kumar allegedly obtained credit facilities from the SBI’s commercial branch in Haryana’s Karnal by misrepresentation of facts.

“The company, which manufactured grain mill products (rice), allegedly diverted the loan amount for introduction of share capital, inflated the sale and purchase figures, and devalued stocks to show losses to justify diversion of funds by selling stock out of books”, said the official. The company allegedly failed to repay the loan amount resulting in the loss of `100.46 crore to the bank. The agency has also booked unknown public servants in the case, said the official.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from the Union home ministry on fixing a time-limit for processing and placing before the President a mercy petition by a death row convict seeking clemency of death sentence.

Making it clear that they can’t ask the President to decide a mercy petition in a time-frame, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy said that the only thing that they can do is to ask ministry of home affairs on the time-limit in placing the file before the President.

Giving the home ministry four week-time to respond, the court wanted to know if there is a timeline for the ministry of home affairs to put the mercy petition before the President.