Court reject Veritas analyst anticipatory bail plea

A sessions court here rejected the anticipatory bail application of Nitin Mangal, co-author of Canada-based research firm Veritas’ report that had alleged serious irregularities at Indiabulls group.

The Veritas analyst had approached the sessions court for anticipatory bail after complaints were filed by Indiabulls against Mangal and another co-author of the report Neeraj Monga and the research firm.

Hearing the plea, the court in its order said that public prosecutor’s apprehension is not unfounded that the petitioner (Mangal) would not join investigation, if given anticipatory bail. “This court has thus no reasons to grant him the benefit of anticipatory bail. His request is declined. The application is consequently dismissed,” the order said, noting that “the gravity of the offence dis-entitles the petitioner to seek anticipatory bail.”

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Mangal pleaded that he was only a consultant of Veritas. Indiabulls had filed its complaint on August 8 after the shares of its group companies fell sharply amid the allegations made against them in the Veritas report.

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The Indian group, which has presence in financial services, real estate and power businesses among others, had said on August 9 that it has submitted ’email evidence’ to the police regarding money demanded by a Veritas analyst for holding back a scathing report against the group.

It also said that Indiabulls officers have initiated complaints with investigating agencies in Canada for causing harm and injury to the group and its shareholders. “The Veritas report has been published with gross incorrect data (not interpretation of data but factual data) about each of its three flagship companies,” Indiabulls had said.

It said that Veritas analysts never spoke to any person at Indiabulls for any clarifications or facts and have never visited any of its power plant or real estate sites before releasing their commentary, as admitted by Monga himself.

Monga had said that at that time that Veritas depended on publicly available information for its report, while the research firm rejected the charge of its report being aimed at profiteering and counter-accused Indiabulls of attempting to discredit the research firm and the authors of its report.

PTI