Supreme Court denies Kampani bail

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected investment banker Nimesh Kampani’s anticipatory bail plea. This means Kampani, who is wanted in the Nagarjuna Finance (NFL) scam case, can be arrested as soon as he comes to India.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected investment banker Nimesh Kampani’s anticipatory bail plea. This means Kampani, who is wanted in the Nagarjuna Finance (NFL) scam case, can be arrested as soon as he comes to India.

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The 64-year-old Mumbai-based chairman of JM Financial moved to Dubai to avoid arrest five months ago because of the arrest warrant against him.

Kampani and other executives of Hyderabad-based NFL, a non-banking financial firm, are under investigation for the firm’s failure to return around Rs 98.3 crore collected from 85,160 depositors in 1997-98.

Kampani had approached the apex court after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Andhra Praesh High Court on February 25. His lawyer Mukul Rohatgi urged the court argued that the high court order was unreasonable, but the bench disagreed and dismissed the plea.

On April 29, the Supreme Court had refused to give immediate relief to Kampani and had asked him to surrender.

The Andhra court has also refused to quash criminal proceedings against him. Kampani’s argument has been that he had resigned from the post of independent director of Nagarjuna Finance in April 1999, much before the alleged fraud.