HC strikes down magisterial order closing case against Topsgrup firm

The single-judge bench of justice Madhav Jamdar has remanded the matter back to the magistrate court for fresh adjudication on the closure report. Apart from top management of the Topsgrup, a close aide of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), has also been named as an accused in the case.

MUMBAI: Acting on a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Bombay high court on Wednesday struck down an order passed by the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court, accepting a closure report filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Topsgrup Services and Solutions Ltd, a Topsgrup firm, in connection with alleged irregularities in the security guards contracts awarded by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

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The single-judge bench of justice Madhav Jamdar has remanded the matter back to the magistrate court for fresh adjudication on the closure report. Apart from top management of the Topsgrup, Amit Chandole, a close aide of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), has also been named as an accused in the case for allegedly having received kickbacks.

The complainant, Ramesh Iyer, ex-vice chairman of Topsgrup Services Ltd., alleged that in 2014, a contract was signed by M/s Topsgrup Services & Solutions Ltd, with Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), according to which, about 350 to 500 guards were to be deployed at MMRDA sites on a monthly basis. However, only 70% of guards were actually deployed, with billings done for all the guards (100% deployment) as per contract.

Iyer alleged that in 2017-18, an amount of over ₹92 lakh was handed over to Niraj Bijlani, the ex-CEO of the company, with an arrangement of 50% profit and a fixed commission of ₹50,000 to be paid to Chandole. As per the details provided by Iyer, an amount aggregating to ₹2.36 crore was paid as commission between May 2017 to June 2020. Out of this, ₹90 lakh was paid to Chandole through bank transfers, with approximately ₹7 crore paid as commission, since 2014 - initiation of contract with MMRDA.

Following this, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) registered a criminal case in 2022 and later filed a C-summary report, discarding all the allegations in the case. On September 14, 2022, the Esplanade magistrate court accepted the report, noting that Iyer had submitted no-objection to the report and that the case was filed based on a misunderstanding.

Aggrieved by this, the ED in 2022 approached the high court, challenging the magistrate’s order. Its counsel, Hiten Venegaonkar, argued that the ‘C’ Summary report was accepted solely on the no-objection given by Iyer, without application of mind.

Senior counsels Amit Desai and Abad Ponda, appearing for Chandole, did not resist the remanding back of the case to the magistrate court but urged the high court to not record any adverse findings.

The high court on Wednesday set aside the order and remanded the case back to the Esplanade court for considering the ‘C’ summary report afresh. Stating that it has not considered the merits of the report, it requested the magistrate court to consider the ‘C’ summary report expeditiously.