The Telangana High Court on Tuesday granted conditional bail to Nowhera Shaik, the Managing Director of the Heera group, who is facing allegations of duping close to 2 lakh investors across the country of a few thousand crore by promising high returns to them.
Justice G Sri Devi of the High Court, who was hearing the case on Tuesday, asked Nowhera to deposit an amount of Rs 5 crore as surety and said that she was restricted from travelling, without the permission of the court. The court ordered her to surrender her passport and said that she could not leave the country without its permission. She also has to regularly present herself at the police station.
The HC also transferred the investigation into the case from the Telangana police to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) headquartered in New Delhi.
Nowehra's counsel had argued that the alleged crimes committed by her were financial in nature and should come under the SFIO and weren't criminal in nature, thereby attracting provisions of the IPC.
The police and the state government could challenge this move in the Supreme Court.
Nowhera was first arrested by the Telangana police in October last year in New Delhi and brought to Hyderabad on a transit remand.
The arrest was made during the course of the investigations into a case booked against her at Banjara Hills police station in Hyderabad for cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation.
She has also been booked under Telangana Deposits of Financial Establishment Act 1999 and The Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.
Police said it found incriminating evidence against Nowhera, who runs various businesses in India and the Middle East.
Nowhera has been lodged in the Chanchalguda women’s jail. While the lower courts had granted her bail in some cases, she was yet to receive bail in other cases that had been booked against her.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered FIRs against Nowhera, besides police officials in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the country.