Srinagar: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Wednesday rejected a plea to quash an FIR registered by Central Bureau of Investigation against M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Ltd company in alleged insurance scam regarding group medical insurance scheme for government employees in Jammu and Kashmir.
“…allegations levelled against the petitioner and other government officials as well as against RGICL (Reliance General Insurance Company Limited) which are required to be probed in detail and at this stage when investigation has not reached at the final stage and the investigating agency is still in the process of gathering evidence, the FIR cannot be quashed,” a bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal said. However, the court directed CBI to conclude the investigation of the case as expeditiously as possible. “The petitioner-company is directed to participate in the investigation so as to enable the respondent No.1 (CBI) to conclude the investigation expeditiously.”
The CBI has registered two FIRs in connection with corruption allegations levelled by former governor Satyapal Malik in the awarding of contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees and civil work in J&K worth Rs 2,200 crore.
The agency has booked Reliance General Insurance and Trinity Re-Insurance Brokers Limited in the case.
The CBI and ACB in their replies before the court stated that a Regular Case No.RC1232022A0004 was registered by CBI, ACB, Srinagar, on 19.04.2022 against the M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Ltd, RGICL and other underknown public servants and private persons under Section 120-B r/w Section 420 of J&K Penal Code (Ranbir Penal Code) and under Section 5(2) r/w Section 5(1)(d) of the J&K PC Act, on the basis of written complaint dated 23.03.2022 submitted by the Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of J&K, General Administration Department. It is further stated that unknown officials/officers of the Government of J&K in conspiracy with M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited and M/S RGICL committed criminal misconduct by hiring M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited as consultant/intermediary to guide the department in tendering process. M/S RGICL was selected as Insurer for Group Mediclaim Insurance of employees and pensioners of J&K Govt. in the year 2018 by violating the Financial Rules and an amount of Rs.61,43,78,800/ was released in favour of M/S RGICL before signing of agreement. M/S RGICL was allowed to misappropriate the funds of J&K Government by allowing insurance policy to continue for one quarter, wherein the notice for foreclosure of the contract with effect from 31.12.2018 was served upon M/S RGICL on 30.11.2018. It is further averred that after registration of FIR, investigation is being carried out and during investigation, Shri Harshit Jain, Director and Principal Officer of the petitioner-Company was requested to produce the documents including communications with insurance companies, TPAs and Government of J&K, eligibility of M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited, documents regarding expenses incurred, payments received etc. and to give his statement regarding allegations of malpractices. He attended the CBI, ACB, Srinagar, office on 20.07.2022 and 21.07.2022 and produced photocopies of the documents. On 21.07.2022, his statement was recorded but before completion of his statement, he requested to defer the statement due to ill health and as he wanted to refer to his office records before making WP(C) No.295/2024 Page 6 of 17 further statement and accordingly Shri Harshit Jain was directed to attend the CBI, ACB, Srinagar office after one week along with all original/certified documents and he was relieved from CBI office. Thereafter, despite telephonic calls and notices issued to Shri Harshit Jain, he did not participate in the investigation and levelled false allegations of harassment without any basis, with ulterior motive to stall the smooth investigation of the case. M/S RGICL has paid any amount of Rs.4,36,07,033/ to the petitioner as brokerage out of the premium received from the Government. The Government of J&K had deducted the premium amount from the salaries of lacs of Government employees and received premium amount from the pensioners as well. The M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Ltd and RGICL are duty bound to cooperate during the investigation. It is also stated that the ACB, J&K, has not investigated the matter, rather has only conducted limited preliminary enquiry/verification and at present, the CBI is conducting thorough investigation of the allegations made in the FIR. During search of the premises of the M/S Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Ltd, certain incriminating documents were seized and the said documents are being examined.

KR Desk