Chairman of India’s SpiceJet to appeal arrest warrant
Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director of SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int’l), will appeal before a court in Delhi to halt an arrest warrant issued against him, a spokesperson for the carrier told the Business Standard newspaper.
The legal proceedings concern a case of alleged financial fraud that a local shopkeeper had filed, accusing Singh of failing to transfer shares to him as part of an agreement. This prompted Singh, through his lawyer, to file for “anticipatory bail” at the district court in Saket, South Delhi.
Because Singh had allegedly refused to cooperate with a police investigation into the matter, he faces a non-bailable arrest warrant, which has the power to put the accused behind bars. Under Indian criminal law, anticipatory bail can release the individual on bail even before an arrest.
The complaint was filed by one Sanjeev Nanda, the owner of a Delhi mobile phone store called Star Mobitel. According to a court document the newspaper was able to view, Singh allegedly entered into a share-purchase agreement with Nanda whereby he agreed to transfer 25 million shares of the company for INR25 million rupees (USD326,000), 15 million for his wife Priti Nanda and 10 million shares for his son Chetan.
Nanda was presented with delivery instruction slips to authorise the transfers of the shares, but he claimed he was told that the slips were outdated and so no transfer could be made. A police investigation was subsequently launched.
The Nanda family’s lawyer, Siddharth Satija, accused Singh in a statement of “failing to honour his commitments emanating from the share purchase agreements” and that several police notices were issued to him “directing him to join the investigation” but with “one false pretext or the other he refused to join” the probe. “Owing to his cavalier attitude and lack of seriousness towards the investigation,” non-bailable warrants were issued on January 15, 2022, after which Singh “through covert means” avoided their execution.
On March 9, he applied for anticipatory bail, the statement concluded, and the court responded by directing him to “join an investigation” on the morning of March 11 while granting him protection from arrest. The court also tabled further proceedings on the matter for March 28.
The SpiceJet spokesperson confirmed to the Business Standard that the warrants had been issued and said: “It’s a purely civil matter, and the non-bailable warrant was issued because Mr Singh could not appear for a hearing as he was in isolation because his wife tested positive for Covid.”