HC grants pre-arrest bail to man who embezzled ₹80 cr from Dubai-based company

Former employee of a Dubai-based company, Harnish Chadderwala, has been granted pre-arrest bail by the Bombay High Court after being accused of misappropriating over ₹80 crore. The court cited the inordinate delay in registering the FIR as the primary reason for granting bail. Chadderwala was accused of making false entries in account books and wiping data from the company's computer system to hide his involvement in the misappropriation. The police argued against bail, stating the seriousness of the allegations and the need for custodial interrogation. However, the judge deemed the delay in filing the FIR as a significant factor.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has granted pre-arrest bail to a former employee of a Dubai-based company accused of misappropriating over ₹80 crore from the company. A single judge bench of justice NJ Jamadar granted anticipatory bail to Harnish Chadderwala primarily in view of the inordinate delay in registering the FIR.

HT Image

According to a complaint lodged by Manoj Sawant on behalf of the Dubai-based Valiant Pacific LLC Ltd with the Rabodi police station in Thane, Chadderwala joined the company in March 2003. As there were significant differences in the inter-company balance for the years 2016-17 and 2017-18, he was told to prepare reconciliation statements. But instead of furnishing these statements, he tendered his resignation on December 1, 2018. When the computer used by Chadderwala was scanned, it was found that he had made false entries in the account books and siphoned off a huge amount, noted Sawant.

The complainant further alleged that on January 13, 2019, Chadderwala accessed the computer system of the company remotely and wiped the data stored on the computer using anti-forensic tools such as Disk Wipe and Eraser. The deleted data would have otherwise revealed his complicity in the misappropriation, said the compainant.

After the FIR was registered, Chadderwala moved the high court for pre-arrest bail, contending that the case was registered based on information furnished by a used car dealer who had no connection with the company and therefore no credence could be attached to the allegations made in the FIR. He further contended that “the sequence of events and the time-lag between his date of resignation (December 1, 2018) and the lodging of FIR (August 9, 2022) unmistakably indicate that the applicant is being hounded by the former employer.”

The police opposed Chadderwala’s pre-arrest bail plea, contending that the allegations were grave and a huge amount of ₹80 crore had allegedly been siphoned off. The police also pointed out that the accused used a Blackberry mobile handset which was connected to his computer and his custodial interrogation was necessary.

Justice Jamadar, however, said the resignation of the accused was accepted without a demur and it cannot be brushed aside as inconsequential. “The lodging of the report on August 9, 2022 in wake of the alleged discovery on January 15, 2019, prima facie suffers from the vice of inordinate delay,” said the judge.