Official liquidator to assess, pay Rs 180cr to City Limo claimants

Official liquidator to assess, pay Rs 180cr to City Limo claimants

Swati Deshpande, TNN | Sep 24, 2013, 02.29 AM IST

MUMBAI: There is finally some hope for thousands of investors duped by alleged fraudulent schemes of Mumbai-based City Limouzines (India) Ltd. The Bombay high court on Monday directed that the official liquidator (OL) would now be the one-window authority for assessing and disbursing claims. The court also asked the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to forward the 60,000 complaints it has received so far to the OL.

Lawyer for the EOW Uma Palsuledesai said, "The department was ready to hand over the recovered amount to the OL in the interest of investors' claims.'' It had recovered about Rs 180 crore. The scam is believed to be worth over Rs 1,000 crore. But Justice Nitin Jamdar said "no amounts will be distributed (to claimants) without leave of the court".

The development marks a cohesive effort for claims disbursement.

Now only the official liquidator will handle all claims, even future claims,'' the judge said. He clarified that his order would not affect criminal proceedings pending in various courts against the firm and its owner Sayed Masood, including the one initiated by the EOW under the Maharashtra Protection of Investors and Depositors Act and money laundering cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate.

The HC was hearing a plea filed by the City Group Investors Welfare Association against the EOW for its claims. The issue on Monday was whether the claim to recovered amounts would first rest with the ED or investors. Additional solicitor general Kevic Setalvad and advocate Som Sinha said the ED had precedence and added that properties-worth Rs 130 crore-attached by the ED across metros, would not be handed over to the OL.

After hearing J P Sen, counsel for the OL, Justice Jamdar said, "The money given by EOW must be invested in short-term deposits in nationalized banks, its interest used for claim assessment." The commerce ministry must consider providing funds to the liquidator, the HC saidand ordered all authorities to coordinate with the OL.

Bombay HC cancels 'non-compliant' City Limo chairman's bail

The Bombay HC on Wednesday cancelled the bail given to City Limouzines chairman SayedMasoodJamadar in a case registered against him at the Nagpada police station. The HC observed that just because the Supreme Court showed indulgence to Jamadar earlier, it cannot be granted again and again.

Justice A M Thipsay heard a plea filed by City Group Investors Association and the state urging the court to cancel Jamadar's bail. Jamadar was granted bail in December 2, 2011, by the sessions court on a condition that he attend the Nagpada police station once a week and chalk out a repayment plan.

Association's advocate Mubin Solkar and assistant public prosecutor Shilpa Gajare-Dhumal said Jamadar had attended the police station only four times of 46 Saturdays till he was arrested in another case in on December 14, 2012 by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering. On To a query why his bail should be cancelled, Solkar said if released, Jamadar will not be available for trial. There are 50 cases pending against Jamadar all over the country.

Jamadar's senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani said the breach has not caused any prejudice to the victims or the state. He pointed out that in a similar case involving Jamadar, the SC had not found it fit to cancel his bail for non-compliance of order to attend police station once a week.

Since a particular view has been taken by the Supreme Court in a similar case, it would be proper for this court to take a similar stand,'' said Jethmalani.

The HC said the SC has granted Jamadar indulgence with the object that he should continue his efforts for repayment of investors under the supervision of the court. It is not possible to accept that once indulgence has been given, again and again indulgence should be shown in this matter,'' said Justice Thipsay, adding that there is no explanation given for breach of the order to attend the police station.

The judge noted that no steps were taken by Jamadar to repay investors and allowed the petitions for cancelling his bail.

PMLA court freezes Rs 1.93 crore funds of Mumbai chitfund firm

Cracking the whip on fraudulent chit fund schemes and their operators, a special anti-money laundering court here has issued freezing orders on Rs 1.92 crore of cash deposits of Mumbai-based firm City Limouzines which allegedly duped hundreds of investors.

The Adjudicating Authority of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (Act), the judicial appellate court for Money Laundering offenses, issued the orders after the Enforcement Directorate attached the accounts of the firm after it finished its year-long probe in this case

This is the second such order by the authority in the recent past after it issued a similar directive freezing Rs 1.63 crore in bank accounts of owners of chitfund companies running in Haryana and Punjab which have allegedly cheated many people.

"....The defendants have, prima facie, committed the scheduled offenses, generated proceeds of crime and laundered them.Moreover, the cash balances lying in the accounts of Ms City Cooperative Credit Society LTD held with IDBI bank, and the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank LTD and three numbers of term deposits plus the interest accrued thereon with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank LTD are involved in money laundering and, therefore, liable for attachment," the recent order issued by the court of authority member K Ramamoorthy said.

The total funds attached stand at Rs 1,92,63,294.31 and the ED will now take the possession of this amount.

The owner of the business, Sayed Mohammed Masood, had been arrested by the ED last year after the agency registered a money laundering case against him and others based on a compliant of the Economic Offenses Wing of Mumbai police.

The EOW, in its charge sheet filed in 2010 in this case, has said that it received approximately 28,000 complaints from investors alleging cheating by Ms City Limouzines (India) Ltd and other city group companies.

The police and the ED had said in their probe reports that the firms owned by Masood had floated various attractive but impractical schemes offering high returns which allegedly cheated investors to the tune of Rs 500 crore.

This case also made headlines as the ED for the first time was successful in locating accounts of the firms in Swiss banks and attaching them under criminal provisions of the Money Laundering Act.

estimation of time for repayments

This my estimation of time for repayments.
Expected petitions 100000 , still petitions are not opened as of today.
Time to open and computerize the data with staff of 20 -  1 month
Time to verify computerized data with confiscated data of city offices.- 1 month
Sending call letters to produce originals at Mumbai court - 2 months
Issuing settlement checks - 1 month
I believe by Oct 2013, we could get some money.

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You may have forgotten that we will be paid from the auction money which may take a year. Auction by govt. is a very long procedure i believe. So i don't think that we will get anything this year but still be positive. Hope to get it soon.

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I think money or properties attached are with RBI now.Official liquidator would take stock of claims and put forward the case to RBI. I heard a CA firm is working on evaluating the properties and money confistgated.

Let us keep our fingers crossed.

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I fully agree as in spite of sending self addressed envelop with all the documents through speed post I have not received the papers back. One can agree that the liquidator is too busy but he can not escape from his moral duty to keep us informed and also be transparent.

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It is better that official liquidator be transparent in claims received.Once claims are computerized , the data need to be put up in a website. So the people will be knowing the status. Also, court allows only postal communication,which consumes lot of time. It is better they communicate email or website,which hastens the process.

Lady doc falls for magic of money, loses Rs.27 lakh

What a rotten idea, Sirji; Lady doc falls for magic of money, loses Rs.27 lakh

Mumbai: The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Mumbai police arrested three people on Wednesday for duping a 51-year-old Ayurvedic doctor from Borivli of Rs27.5 lakh. They promised to magically double the money. Another doctor, known to the complainant, is under the police scanner for introducing her to the con men. Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner (crime), said the doctor in October introduced the complainant to Pawan Singh, saying he knew magic and he could double the money. And Singh could show the trick if the woman paid him Rs25,000. The woman agreed and a hotel in Lonavla was chosen as the venue for the trick. There, she was introduced to two others, Abhishek Singh and Sirji. Sirji took a Rs1,000 note and kept three papers of the same size on top of it, Roy said. The papers and the note were wrapped in a red cloth and kept on a glass sheet. After doing some mumbo jumbo for 15 minutes, Sirji poured a “magic liquid” on the cloth. He then ironed the notes, held them over a dryer, and showed her three new Rs1,000 notes. Each had a different serial number — enough to convince the woman. “They even asked her to verify the notes with any bank if she had any doubts,” Nitin Alakhnure, crime branch inspector, said. Once she was convinced, Sirji told her that they undertook a job of doubling money only if it was at least Rs25 lakh. In November, Abhishek Singh collected Rs2.50 lakh from her, ostensibly to buy articles needed for the magic from Nepal. After a couple of days, they called her to the same hotel room and she reached with Rs25 lakh in cash. But this time while performing the “magic”, the glass broke. And Sirji told the woman that the “magic” had failed. “As proof, he opened the cloth and showed a couple of burnt notes,” assistant inspector Satish Mayekar said. Though the three assured her to double the money, they started avoiding her calls after a few days. “After some time they demanded another Rs2 lakh, again to buy stuff from Nepal for the “magic”. But she refused. They then started to threaten her, saying they knew people in the IB, R&AW and Income Tax and could get her in trouble,” Sudhir Dalvi, assistant inspector, said. The woman then lodged a complaint with the AEC. The police asked her to call them to her office for the money. Once they landed up, they were arrested. Speaking about getting new notes in a cloth, an officer said it was just sleight of hand. Once a person is distracted, they slip in new notes or burnt ones as the case may be. These men, said the officer, told the woman they had sourced the paper from RBI and had printed serial numbers. The arrested – Rajan Srivastava alias Sirji, 42, Pravinkumar Srivastava alias Abhishek Singh, 36, and Pawankumar Dubey alias Pawan Singh, 25 — class X dropouts are from Varanasi.

Woman constable cheated of Rs.16k at Dadar ATM

Woman constable cheated of Rs.16k at Dadar ATM

A woman constable was tricked of Rs16,000 by an unidentified man. The incident took place at Dadar station on Saturday. When constable Anuradha Kanawade could not withdraw money from a machine outside the reservation hall, the man standing behind her asked her to check if she had enough balance. He later told her the machine was not working. She then moved to the adjacent ATM machine and withdrew Rs300 for which she received an SMS alert. Two minutes later, she received another SMS alerting her to a Rs16,000 transaction. Shocked, she checked her balance and then lodged a complaint with the Dadar GRP.

What are psychotropic drugs?

What are psychotropic drugs?

    Apsychotropic drug is a chemical that acts upon the central nervous system resulting in temporary changes in perception, consciousness and behaviour. Apart from their medicinal use, these drugs are often abused for recreational purpose. Physical dependence develops after sustained use and it becomes very difficult to get de-addicted. 

Which are the commonly used psychotropic drugs? According to the UN’s World Drug Report 2012, cannabis is the world’s most widely used illicit substance. In 2010, there were over 224 million people who had used the drug at least once in the past 12 months. With 36 million users, opioids follow cannabis. Opioids is the generic term used for natural as well as synthetic opiates. It is followed by opiates, cocaine, ATS and Ecstasy. Overall, there are over 300 million drug users across the world. Opioids (mainly heroin) are the main problem drugs accounting for maximum treatment demand in Asia and Europe. They also account for considerable treatment demand in Africa, North America and Oceania. South America is the only region where there is negligible opioid treatment demand. 

What are opiates and where are they produced? Morphine, heroin and other psychotropic drugs derived from opium are called opiates. Morphine is an intermediate product and heroin is the end
product. Heroin, which is named after heroisch (German for heroic), because people using it felt heroic, is widely used as a drug for its intense euphoria. Afghanistan produces 89% of the world’s illicit opium, 7% is produced in Myanmar and 4% in the rest of the world. Mexico, Colombia and Peru are the main suppliers in the Americas. For most of the European and Middle Eastern opiates, the starting point is Afghanistan. From there, opiates are smuggled through Iran, Pakistan and the Balkan states to Europe. In the Americas, the main trafficking routes for heroin are from Mexico and Colombia to the US. For Asia and Oceania, Thailand is the main
transit point. The main producers of the region are the Lao republic and Myanmar. 

What is cocaine and where is it produced? Cocaine is a psychotropic drug obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant, giving rise to what has been described as a euphoric sense of happiness and increased energy. Almost all of the coca leaf is cultivated in three Andean countries of South America - Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The major entry point to the US is Mexico, and to Europe is Spain and Portugal. West and Central Africa are also emerging as main transit points for European cocaine traffic. They are also used as transit points for the traffic in Oceania and East Asian countries. 

What are cannabis derivatives and where are they produced? Cannabis is a plant that grows virtually everywhere. It is used in three forms: Herbal cannabis (marijuana or ganja), cannabis resin (hashish or charas) and cannabis oil. The major market for herbal cannabis is America, and major suppliers to America are Mexico, Canada, Jamaica and Colombia. Other significant markets are Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. 
 
What are Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS), and where are they produced? Amphetamines, ecstasy (MDMA) and other synthetic stimulants are classified as ATS. These drugs have a strong association with the rave culture. They temporarily increase alertness and wakefulness. Many users report subjective feelings of openness, empathy, energy, euphoria, and well-being. ATS production is concentrated in North America, East and South-East Asia and in Europe. Amphetamine and Ecstasy are mainly produced in Europe. Methamphetamine is mainly produced in North America and south East Asia.

50-yr-old steals 18-kg silver from more than 100 shops over 5 years

50-yr-old steals 18-kg silver from more than 100 shops over 5 years

Mumbai: A 50-year-old employee of a government telecom company has been arrested for stealing silver ornaments, idols and utensils collectively weighing 18kg and worth Rs10 lakh over the last five years.
    Matunga resident Rekha Wamorkar, employed as a clerk in the company’s Prabhadevi office, reportedly took to crime to lead a comfortable life after her retirement. She had stored the stolen goods at her home and was planning to sell them after her last day at work.
    “She targeted over 100 jewellery shops in the city in the last five years and had managed to avoid getting caught,” Mulund senior inspector Jivajirao Jadhav told TOI. Wamorkar ran out of luck on Sunday when she visited Mansi Jewellers on MG Road in Mulund (W) at 11.30am on the pretext buying a silver idol of Lord Shiva on Maha Shivratri.
    In his complaint, Manishkumar Jain (33), owner of Mansi Jewellers, said, “The elderly woman asked my staffers to show her silver idols of Lord Shiva. A little later, she asked them to show her silverware. She diverted my employees’ attention by chatting with them and surreptitiously put some of the valuables in her bag. When I saw that some of the valuables were missing, I informed the Mulund police and didn’t allow the customers to step out of the shop till the sleuths arrived.”
    The police recovered Lord Shiva idols and a few silver glasses from Wamorkar.
    Jadhav said, “She used to take advantage of her age as most people don’t suspect an elderly woman to be a thief. She would distract jewellery shop staffers by engaging them in a conversation. She would then slip the valuables into her bag.”
    The Mulund police will handover the valuables recovered from Wamorkar’s house to jewellers after verifying their claims.
CRIME ROUTE TO RETIREMENT DREAM
    Matunga resident Rekha Wamorkar, who works as a clerk in a government telecom company, stole silver ornaments, coins and idols (in pic below) worth 10L in the last five years She had stored the stolen goods at her Matunga home and was planning to sell them after her last day at work so that she could lead a comfortable life after retirement
She used to take advantage of her age as most people don’t suspect an elderly woman to be a thief
Jivajirao Jadhav | SENIOR INSPECTOR

Tech-savvy brothers held as brains of 1cr e-fraud

Tech-savvy brothers held as brains of 1cr e-fraud

Delhi Duo Hacked Mulund A/C

    Police have solved the Rs 1-crore e-fraud case at a private bank in Mulund by arresting two brothers adept in software technology from New Delhi on Saturday. Fajroor Rehman Khan, 26, and Shahrukh, 23, are said to be the masterminds of not only this bank account hacking, but dozens of similar frauds amounting to crores across the country.
    “The two are college dropouts, but are very intelligent. The elder had enrolled into a software programming course while the younger is a web designer and knows software programming,” said a source.
    Acting on details given by one of the 19 persons arrested in the case till Saturday, the siblings were nabbed from their Delhi residence and brought to Mumbai on transit warrant. They were produced before a local court here on Sunday morning and remanded to police custody till March 14.
    “Initially, the brothers took the help of hackers. Later, they learnt to develop viruses and sent Trojan mails randomly. When a victim clicked on the mail, the Trojan virus got activated and sent details of the person’s computer activities — including netbanking username and password — to the accused,” said a police source.
    Using this modus operandi, the two are suspected to have carried out dozens of frauds, at least since 2006. That year, the accused were wanted by south Mumbai police station for an e-fraud, the police learned during the investigations. In 2007, they struck in Meerut and a year later, hacked into a bank account in Noida and siphoned off Rs 1.7 crore.
    On January 31 this year, the two brothers hacked into the current account of a cosmetic company in a private bank from a cellphone and transferred Rs 1 crore in just 45 minutes (between 9.15am and 10am) to 12 different bank accounts in Mumbai, Thane and Uttar Pradesh. After finding out about the fraudulent funds transfer, company director Ankur Korani, 29, asked the bank to freeze the account and approached the police.
    A Mulund police team homed in on the kingpins after the 19th arrest in the case of Sadique Hussain Khalid Sayyed, 40, an Ajmer resident, from his hideout in Mira Road on February 19. “After receiving information from Sayyed, a police team kept a watch on the movements of the two accused,” said an officer of Mulund police station. Police have so far recovered Rs 75 lakh of the Rs 1 crore that was stolen.
    Additional commissioner of police (East region) Quaiser Khalid confirmed to TOI that the brothers had been arrested by Mulund police.
    One of those arrested in the case, Sandeep Mohite alias Yashwant Mohite, 32, told the police Sayyed was the middleman between the kingpins and owners of the fake bank accounts used in the fraud. A police source said Sayyed had collected Rs 12 lakh from four account holders, handed over Rs 10 lakh to the masterminds and kept the rest. “Sayyed’s role was to inform the account holders of the cash transfers and collect it when they withdrew it. He was tracked down with the help of the mobile network location,” he added.

1 Within 45 minutes on Jan 31, hacker moves Rs 1 crore out of a cosmetics firm’s current account in a private bank in Mulund to 12 accounts in Mumbai, Thane and UP

2 Director Ankur Korani asks bank to freeze account; approaches cyber police station and the Mulund police and lodges an FIR. Police team fans out to Delhi and UP

3 Up to 19 arrests finally leads to kingpins — techsavvy brothers in Delhi. Till date, police have managed to recover Rs 75 lakh of the Rs 1 crore spirited away

EOW freezes realty firm’s a/c

EOW freezes realty firm’s a/c

Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has frozen the bank account of Sigrun Realties after its former managing director claimed that the current directors had threatened him.
    The account, maintained with a private bank, was set up in 2005 by a few NRIs for investing in properties in Mumbai.
    In 2011, the EOW officials were investigating a cheating complaint by the directors who alleged that then MD Rajesh Nair had siphoned off around Rs 189 crore. Nair was removed from the firm and while the probe was on, he lodged a complaint of threat in a magistrate’s court. The complaint was forwarded to the EOW, which froze the account saying “proceeds of alleged crime have been received in this account”.
    The directors have denied the allegation. They claimed the cheating dispute was settled after Nair filed a consent term agreeing to pay Rs 49.68 crore as settlement by July 2012. “He paid around Rs 8.65 crore and then accused us of forcing him to sign the settlement. He refused to pay the balance. We didn’t issue any threats,” said Naveen Dsouza, director, Sigrun Realties.
    The Bombay high court, in one of its hearings, had observed about the violation of bail conditions.
    An EOW official said the complaints and counter-allegations are being probed simultaneously by different officers for a fair investigation.
    In the threat complaint, the HC has told the EOW to provide three days’ time before arresting the directors.
    Nair has also lodged a complaint of forgery by the directors. The EOW also suspects the source of funds and has written to the enforcement directorate for a probe. “Necessary permissions from the RBI were not procured before transferring the funds violating the foreign exchange regulations,” an officer claimed.

HC turns down Hasan Ali’s bail plea

HC turns down Hasan Ali’s bail plea

Mumbai: The Bombay HC on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Pune businessman Hasan Ali Khan in connection with money laundering cases.
    Khan—though his counsel Satish Maneshinde—sought bail on grounds that he said were new as there was no chargesheet yet filed against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). However, Justice R C Chavan rejected the bail application.
    Hasan Ali Khan had been arrested in 2011 and his bail plea had been rejected in September 2011 by the Supreme Court and another one in October 2012 by the special court. He moved the HC to have the October order quashed and to be released on bail. Maneshinde’s arguments were that the material so far has not disclosed any connection between the alleged scheduled offences and the proceeds of the crime as is required under the PMLA.
    Advocate general Darius Khambata and public prosecutor Revati Dere appeared for the Enforcement Directorate and state to argue against the bail plea. In 2007, the ED had registered a case against Khan on the basis of information received from the income tax department which alleged that he and his associates maintained bank accounts outside India.
    The agencies said that in 2006, a Zurich bank had written to Khan allegedly in which he was permitted to withdraw US$ 6 billion out of a total of $8 billion in the account there. He has been accused to tax evasion worth several thousand crores has been in jail for two years.

Man encounters blackmail after stripping online for ‘girl’

Man encounters blackmail after stripping online for ‘girl’

Mumbai: Pretending to be a girl, a 24-year-old MBA who chatted online with another man asked him to dance nude, recorded the act and used the clip to blackmail him.
    The police said the accused, Nikhil Lala, saved the clip on his laptop and threatened to send the images to the victim’s wife if he did not give him Rs 80,000.
    The property cell of the city police arrested Lala from his office in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. Inspector Nandkumar Gopale of the property cell said the complainant was a 33-year-old married man living in Central Mumbai. “In January, the victim came began chatting to a person who claimed to be an unmarried woman,” Gopale said. “One day, the ‘girl’ asked the complainant that she wanted to see him nude. Later the complainant was blackmailed.”

Industrialist card fraud trail goes beyond India

Industrialist card fraud trail goes beyond India

B’lore, Nashik, Ahmedabad Link In Fraud Cases

Mumbai: Police investigations in the case of fraudulent use of industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla’s credit card details have revealed the involvement of people from Bangalore, Sri Lanka and Bangkok.
    Two Bangalore men accused of using a cloned credit card of Birla to buy gold jewellery worth Rs 2.86 lakh in 2011 were interrogated last month by officers of the Worli police station after they were brought to the city from the Karnataka capital on a transit remand.
    The two, Jayakumar Samuel and Raja Pandian alias Megharaj, were picked up in Bangalore last month and handed over to the Worli police. “We handed over custody of Samuel and Pandian (to the Worli police) in January,” a Bangalore police officer said.
    A few days after the purchases, the Bangalore police had arrested nine members of the gang that had sent the two to shop with the cloned card. The gang of nine told the police that they had purchased the details of Birla’s card for Rs 10,000 from members of an international gang operating from Bangkok. They then took the help of a Sri Lankan to prepare the cloned card. The police said the gang was unaware the card belonged to Birla.
HOW IT WORKED
    Bangalore police say the fraudsters would purchase credit card details for Rs 10,000 per card from a Bangkok-based gang
    The deals would be struck through a website, www. cdrsu.su
    A gang member, N Goutam, would pass on card details and magnetic strips to his accomplice Jayakumar and a Sri Lankan, Hari Prasad, who would come to Bangalore to prepare cloned cards
    The gang would pay a commission to people who agreed to shop with the cloned cards at malls

82-yr-old retired cop duped of 31 lakh - Wekalp Trade Solutions

82-yr-old rtd cop duped of 31 lakh

 An 82-year-old former police officer was left poorer by Rs 31 lakh after the returns on a get-rich quick scheme he had heavily invested in stopped abruptly last year.
    Laxman Awchat, a Mahim resident who retired as a senior police officer, lodged a complaint with the Mahim police station saying he had invested Rs 48 lakh in a 20-month money double scheme offered by an entity called Wekalp Trade Solutions in October 2010, but got back only Rs 17 lakh before the proprietor of the investment firm disappeared with his money.
    The police said Wekalp proprietor Mayank Dhruv had promised 100% returns in just 20 months if Awchat invested a large sum. They said besides the city, Dhruv had also opened offices in Nashik, where there were several cases of fraud against him.
    DCP (zone V) Dhananjay Kulkarni has formed a team led by inspector Bhausaheb Gite to catch Dhruv. “Many fraud cases were registered against Dhruv with the Nashik police after several people were duped of crores,” he said.
    Awchat was lured into investing with Wekalp after visiting the Dadar office of the company in 2010.

Unfreeze my assets, says City Limo scam accused.

MUMBAI: Sayed Masood Jamadar, prime accused in the City Limouzine scam, urged the Bombay High Court on Monday to find a solution to enable him to pay back his investors.

Masood, chairman of City Group, who has been arrested for money-laundering, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), urged the court to unfreeze his assets so he can pay back investors who he had allegedly duped. The cheating case is being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). "Even the police cannot do anything. Let all properties be sold and investors be paid.,'' said A M Sachwani, Masood's lawyer.

The City Group Investors Association, which had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court to get back its money, called it another delaying tactic. "Before they fulfill their assurances to court, the lawyer is changed," said Mubin Solkar, the association's lawyer. The judges adjourned the hearing by two weeks, permitting Masood to file his say.

Masood's assets were frozen after he was arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. But on the back of the PIL, Masood urged the court to let him pay back investors in the case of cheating registered against him by the EOW.

Solkar said the police must tell the court what action has been taken in other cheating cases registered against him.Sachwani sought time to bring the facts on record and said despite the Supreme Court saying Masood may run his company, his accounts have been frozen and properties seized.

He was arrested in Delhi on December 14, 2012 by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering.

Even the police cannot do anything. Let all the properties be sold and investors be paid. Some solution must be found,'' he said. Solkar objected saying similar statements are made by every lawyer appearing for Masood. Before they fulfil their assurances to the court the lawyer is changed,'' said Solkar. Allowing Masood to file his say, the judges adjourned the hearing by two weeks.

Source Link - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-15/mumbai/36351929_1_city-limo-scam-supreme-court-lawyer