Court rejects Romesh Sharma’s plea on FERA

new delhi: a sessions court has refused to drop proceedings under the foreign exchange regulation act against romesh sharma, an alleged frontman of underworld don dawood ibrahim, on the ground that he has been an active partner of the firm through which illegal transactions took place. ''i am of the view that sufficient material existed before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate to reach the conclusion that there was a prima facie case against the petitioner,'' said additional sessions judge babu lal, while rejecting sharma's appeal against the order.''the acmm's order exhaustively deals with the circumstances against the petitioner which make out a prima facie case against him. i do not find any infirmity or illegality in the order,'' the judge said. acmm v k maheshwari on august 8 last year had framed charges against sharma in a case of fera (foreign exchange regulation act) violation to the tune of 3.45 lakh dollars. sharma has been in tihar jail under judicial custody since october 10, 1998 in over a dozen criminal cases, including those of murder, extortion and kidnapping. the enforcement directorate had filed a complaint against him and his business partner ajay nayyar alleging that their firm, called next one, had exported goods worth 3,45,195 dollars to the usa in 1997 but did not realise its export proceeds within the stipulated six months as required under the reserve bank of india rules. sharma's partner nayyar has been declared a proclaimed offender by the court after he failed to appear despite issuance of repeated summons and warrants against him. rejecting his appeal this week against the acmm's order, the additional sessions judge observed: ''he was specifically authorised on behalf of the partnership concern to draw, except endorse and negotiate the promissory note, bill of exchange or other negotiable instruments.'' ''all these documents (seized by the ed) bear the signature of the petitioner. when a person has been specifically authorised and has been operating and has been operating the bank accounts of the partnership concern, to my mind it is prima facie evidence of active participation of the petitioner,'' the judge observed in his order. the judge observed that since romesh sharma was the sleeping partner, he had exclusive knowledge of the facts and the burden of proving his innocence lay on him. new shatabdi new delhi: passengers travelling between new delhi and bareilly will now be able to take shatabdi express to their destination from january 2, 2002. the northern railways informed this vide a notification issued on thursday. the train will depart from delhi five days a week — on every sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday — at 4.35 pm and reach bareilly at 9.25 pm on the same day. on its return trip, the train will depart from bareilly — on every monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday — at 6.00 am and reach the capital at 10.50 am on the same day. the train will halt at moradabad for five minutes and will consist one executive class and seven ac chair car coaches.