The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the bail application of chairman of Hi-Tech Group Tirupati Panigrahi in the land fraud case once again while scheduling the next hearing to January 6, 2014.
The apex court had earlier rejected Panigrahi’s bail plea on October 21 stating that the petitioner must first return the land to the people for which the company had taken deposits and then seek bail.
Panigrahi and two of his relatives Tirupati Choudhury and Madhusudan Panigrahi, who are directors of the Hi-Tech Group, were arrested by the State Crime Branch police here on December 25, 2012 for allegedly reneging on the promise of providing residential plots to people after taking money from them
in 2009.
At least five cases have been registered against the Hi-Tech Group by the Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch.
Earlier this year, the Odisha High Court had rejected the bail petitions of Panigrahi and his relatives.
A single-judge Bench had held that considering the nature and magnitude of the offence and its ramifications as alleged, it cannot be taken as a simple case of breach of contract.
The Crime Branch investigation had revealed that more than Rs315.96 crore was due to the investors.
The petitioners received money from 17,181 investors with promise of providing them with residential plots. About 16,901 investors have not got the land.
Panigrahi owns real estate firms, two private medical colleges and several professional educational institutes under the business conglomerate Hi-Tech Group in different places of Odisha.