Bombay High Court seeks response from CBI, State on plea by Rakesh Roshan for refund of defrauded money recovered by CBI

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Maharashtra government on a plea by Bollywood film maker Rakesh Roshan seeking return of money recovered by the CBI from two men who had defrauded Roshan in 2011..Justice RG Avachat sought the response of the CBI and the State government and posted the matter for hearing after 4 weeks. .Roshan was approached by two men in 2011 impersonating themselves as CBI officers. They sought money to settle an alleged dispute arising from a complaint by one of Roshan’s line producers. Roshan handed over an amount of ₹50 lakh to the two men in order to settle the dispute out of court. After realising that he had been misled and falsely implicated, he filed a complaint with the State Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which lodged a first information report (FIR) in August 2011. This case was subsequently taken over by CBI who arrested the two men, who they discovered had duped many others apart from Roshan. They recovered documents of 21 immovable properties and money to the tune of ₹2.94 crores which also allegedly included Roshan’s ₹50 lakh. .In October 2012, Roshan filed an application seeking return of his amount. On November 9, 2012, a special CBI court partly allowed Roshan’s application and granted return of ₹30 lakh. The Court also directed Roshan to furnish an indemnity bond for ₹50 lakhs as security with the court till the end of the trial.Thereafter, Roshan filed a second application in 2020 seeking refund of the remaining ₹20 lakh which was lying with the special court. This application was rejected by the court on December 14, 2021 observing that Roshan was essentially seeking a review of the 2012 order which allowed return of part amount. The Court held the application was not maintainable as the 2012 order had not been challenged within the permissible time and now attained finality..Roshan then moved the High Court seeking quashing of the orders passed in 2012 and 2021. In the petition filed through Naik Naik & Co, Roshan stated that the 2012 order had been erroneously passed by the special court. He contended that the special court in 2012 had not curtailed Roshan’s right for claiming return of ₹20 lakh in its order. Roshan also emphasized that he had submitted an indemnity bond for the entire amount of ₹50 lakh till the end of trial. Roshan claimed that the money had been lying with the trial court since 2012 and the trial is yet to be concluded..Roshan was represented by Advocates Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia and Shashank Trivedi from Naik Naik & Co.