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A Supreme Court bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Hima Kohli today issued notice in plea filed by Mohammad Arif, an accused in Indisales chit fund scam. Arif has challenged the order of the Orissa High Court denying him bail. Arif was arrested in November 2019 by Enforcement Directorate and has been in custody ever since. 

According to Arif’s plea, filed through AoR Swarnendu Chatterjee, in 2009, a case under provisions of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 was registered against him at Balasore, Orissa. The case alleged that Fine Indisales Pvt. Ltd defrauded the complainant by alluring to invest money in the attractive investment Scheme. It was further alleged that FIPL collected huge amounts of money from the public and ultimately duped huge amount from innocent public by giving false assurance of high return for their deposit of money.

The plea states that Arif was not named in the complaint, however, the Enforcement Directorate, by way of supplementary complaint added that allegations was alleged against him. The ED alleged that the tainted money was transferred from the accounts of  FIPL to the accounts of Eve Industries and Great Entertainments.

It has further been alleged that Great Entertainments had transferred Rs.25 crores to  Lemon Entertainment Ltd. for the purpose of promotion of Bollywood movie “Shadow” starring Mohammad Naseer. It is also alleged that the money was used for acquiring a satellite channel named Lemon TV. In 2012, the Orissa High Court directed that looking at the massive financial impact in the case, the investigation of the aforesaid case be handed over to the CBI. 

Arif, in his plea, has stated that the film “Shadow” released in 2009 when he was a college student and was not directly involved in the day to day running affairs of  "Lemon Entertainment". He has further pleaded that he is not the only decision maker of the company and the activities of the company have taken place as per the collective decision of the Board of Directors.  The plea states that Arif was in no way involved with the alleged transactions and it is FIPL that collected money from the general public and invested the same in chit fund activities.

It has also been pleaded that the only allegation against Arif is self-withdrawal of rupees 1.5 crores. According to the plea, Arif’s wife died leaving a four-year-old daughter to be taken care of and he has fully cooperated with the investigation. Arif’s plea further notes that since his arrested in 2019, there has been no substantial progress in the trial. Arif’s plea states that the High Court in its order denying bail has asked the trial court to complete the trial in six months which is unlikely to happen.

When the matter came up for hearing today Malvika Trivedi, Sr Adv, who was assisted by AoR Swarnendu Chatterjee, appeared for Arif and stated the above facts. Court on hearing her submissions issued notice in the plea and tagged it with  Bollywood actor Mohammad Naseer’s plea. It is to be noted that the Supreme Court had issued notice in Naseer’s plea on Monday

Team comprising  of AoR Swarnendu Chatterjee,  Himanshu Nailwal and Yashwardhan Singh appeared for Arif in the case before the Supreme Court. 

Case Title: Mohammad Arif Vs Enforcement Directorate