A Gujarat Protection of Interests of Depositors (GPID) court on Thursday rejected regular bail to Bhupendrasinh Zala, CEO of BZ Group of Companies, in connection with an alleged multi-crore Ponzi scam. Zala, 31, was arrested by the CID (crime) in relation to the scam and subsequently sought regular bail.
His defence argued that there was no complaint from any aggrieved investor regarding his alleged defaults in returning the invested funds. Zala’s lawyer further contended that the investigating officer’s affidavit indicated the approximate investment amount to be around Rs 423 crore, much lower than the Rs 6,000 crore figure allegedly suggested by the police.
However, District Government Pleader Pravin Trivedi opposed the bail application, pointing to an affidavit from the investigating officer.
According to the affidavit, the BZ Group’s website listed a total of 11,232 investors, with investments amounting to Rs 422,96,41,575. Of this, Rs 172,59,68,806 had not been returned to investors.
The investigation revealed that Zala transferred Rs 23,19,16,279 into his bank accounts and received Rs 29,87,28,100 in cash, totalling Rs 53,06,44,379 that Zala allegedly used for his personal purposes, taken from the funds invested by the public.
The designated GPID judge, K M Sojitra, dismissed Zala’s claim that no investor had filed a complaint about the defaults. The court referred to the investigating officer’s statement that around 200 statements by investors prima facie indicated Zala’s failure to make the required payments.
Furthermore, the court noted that Zala did not possess any licence to operate a public deposit scheme.
The judge also addressed concerns raised by the prosecution, citing the ongoing investigation and expressing the belief that granting bail could interfere with the inquiry or lead to the potential coercion or influence of witnesses. The court found these concerns justified at this stage and therefore denied Zala’s request for bail.
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