Hyderabad: Margadarsi Chit Fund (MCF) submitted its objection before the Telangana High Court stating that the Andhra Pradesh CID officials intruded into Margadarsi's central office and conducted searches. The lawyer representing the firm said that the AP CID is collecting information from other states unrelated to the case in the name of information gathering along with forced entry and searches, which is not allowed by law.
The Margadarsi approached the Telangana High Court after AP officials started searching the head office of Margadarsi Chit Fund Company in Hyderabad on Wednesday afternoon. Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said that a single judge should be allowed to hear the oral appeal as an urgent petition.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy heard the petition later in the evening. Vimal Verma Vasireddy, advocate for the petitioner, argued that the employees are in fear of being arrested given the searches being conducted in Margadarsi's offices. He said that the interim order passed by the court on Mar. 21 allowing the investigation to continue applies only to the branch managers and employees who have received the summons, which does not include central office employees.
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An interim order was sought against the AP CID since employees were worried about the arrest, the lawyer submitted. He asked for orders to be given restricting the AP CID from collecting information which are unrelated to in the case. AP Government Advocate P Govinda Reddy representing the respondent objected to the arguments and said that a separate application should be made for the protection of employees.
He said that the Chairman and MD who are already petitioners have protection but not the employees. Reddy objected to the petitioner's claim of collecting the information from other states in violation of law saying that they do not take the information of other states except for the ones related to the Margadarsi case they were pursuing. After hearing the arguments, the judge directed the petitioners to come up with a suitable application on behalf of the employees and adjourned the hearing to Thursday.
Andhra Pradesh CID officials on Wednesday conducted searches at the head office of the company in Hyderabad to investigate the cases registered against Margadarsi Chit Fund. A team of about 40 AP CID sleuths people arrived at the Chit Fund's Hyderabad office for searches. Cell phones of some of the employees were seized.
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The search that started in the afternoon did not end even after office hours. Later, some staff members were allowed to go out in stages while others were advised to stay inside. At 9 o'clock in the night, the staff were sent out to have lunch. It is noteworthy that CID teams reached Hyderabad on Tuesday night and started the search after Wednesday afternoon. CID SP Amit Bardar was present at the police officers mess in Masabtank and supervised the search. One additional SP and three DSPs were part of the search which continued through midnight.
