Kolkata: High Court sets up panel to seize equipment from Jessop factory

When contacted, ADG (CID) Rajesh Kumar said: “Hopefully, by tomorrow or day after, we will inspect the factory, since by December 19, we will have to submit the report to the court.”

Meanwhile, the court on Monday made it clear that this complaint has nothing to do with other cases pending against Ruia and that he would receive no liberty, as he has been accused of misappropriating Railways’ properties, which is public property.

Ruia’s counsel in court argued that they had approached the Railways to collect the equipment from the factory but it was not done. On November 7, Railways sent a letter, which was not addressed to Jessop, but to Pawan Kumar Ruia, accusing him of cheating and fraud, the counsel claimed.

Earlier, before his arrest in New Delhi, Ruia had ignored CID’s four summons since October 26 in connection with investigations into repeated mysterious fires at Jessop factory in Dum Dum. The Calcutta High Court had refused to quash an FIR against him in October. Ruia had moved the court claiming that he was not Jessop’s chairman and insisted that he was “neither the director nor a shareholder, or an occupier of Jessop and Co Ltd (JCL) or any of its premises”.

Ruia was booked along with the factory’s managerial staff under IPC and West Bengal Fire Services Act-1950 on October 18. The second FIR that the fire department lodged does not implicate Ruia directly. He had evaded the CID claiming that he was unwell till his arrest on Saturday.