Kochi: Kerala High Court has issued a bailable arrest warrant against the home department secretary, who is the competent authority under Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes (BUDS) Act, for non-compliance with its previous order directing him to take urgent steps to attach the money from the accounts of a Coimbatore-based financial company in connection with fraud cases.
Justice M A Abdul Hakhim further directed high court registry to issue a bailable warrant against the secretary, with a direction to commissioner of police, Thiruvananthapuram , to produce him before the court on Sept 28 to show cause why suo motu contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against him. The bail bond shall be for Rs 5 lakh. The court was considering a petition filed by Manoj Kumar of Palakkad and 16 other depositors, seeking a directive to the state govt to initiate action against Universal Trading Solutions Pvt Ltd, alleging that the company had swindled their money. On March 3, the court had directed the home department secretary to initiate urgent steps to attach the company’s money after noticing that the competent authorities in Tamil Nadu had already frozen the company’s accounts following complaints from victims there. However, on Sept 15, the state attorney submitted that despite two communications being issued from his office to the secretary, no steps were taken.
Similarly, one of the banks in which the company had accounts submitted that a committee appointed by Supreme Court had directed it to transfer the company’s money to distribute among the victims of the cases registered in Tamil Nadu. Even after six months, the secretary had not taken steps in this regard. Accordingly, the bench issued a bailable warrant.
Accordingly, the bench had directed him to be present before the court to explain the reason.