Ahmedabad: A designated GPID (the Gujarat Protection of Interests of Depositors Act) court here on Thursday denied regular bail to Bhupendrasinh Zala, the CEO of BZ Group of Companies, in connection with an alleged multi-crore Ponzi scam.
After his arrest by the CID (crime), Zala, 31, sought regular bail, claiming that there was no complaint filed by any aggrieved investor about his alleged defaults in returning the amount.His lawyer submitted that the investigating officer’s affidavit revealed that to date, the approximate investment is around Rs 423 crore only, and not anywhere near the “imaginary figure of Rs 6,000 crore, which is cooked up by the police”.
District govt pleader Pravin Trivedi opposed the bail application. The investigator’s affidavit stated that the details on BZ Group’s website revealed there are a total of 11,232 investors and the investment comes to around Rs 422,96,41,575, out of which an amount of Rs 172,59,68,806 had not been returned to the investors. From the amount invested, Zala transferred Rs 23,19,16,279 into his bank accounts and received cash of Rs 29,87,28,100, thus an amount of Rs 53,06,44,379 was received by the applicant for his personal use from the amount invested by the investors.
The designated GPID judge, K M Sojitra, rejected Zala’s contention that not a single investor has made any complaint of default, and the court cited the investigating officer’s statement that around 200 statements by investors prima facie reveal Zala’s default in payment.
“It is also required to note that the applicant does not have any licence to run the scheme of accepting the deposit from the public at large,” the court stated. Besides, the court noted, “The investigation is going on and the apprehension on the part of prosecution that if bail is granted there are chances of hampering investigation and/or influencing or coercing the witnesses, appears to be justified at this stage.”