The CBI court here has allowed the CBI plea to seek specimen handwritings/signatures of accused Sukhwinder Abrol, Sahil Kukkar, Ribhav Rishi, Abhay Kumar and Seema Dhiman arrested in the cases related to alleged scams of over Rs 116 crore fund of Smart City and Rs 80 crore fund of Chandigarh Renewal Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) deposited in IDFC First Bank.
Two FIRs were initially registered at the Economic Offences Police Station, Sector 17, Chandigarh.
Later, on the recommendation of the UT Administrator, the cases were handed over to the CBI.
The CBI in the application filed before the court said specimen signatures and handwriting samples of the accused were required for effective investigation.
Narender Singh, public prosecutor, said the agency got the new documents for which the samples of signatures of the accused were required. However, the accused opposed the application. They said the investigation had changed hands and the earlier investigating agency did not feel the need to obtain specimen handwritings/signatures of the accused. After a gap of months, the investigating agency cannot be allowed to seek the signatures, they said.
After hearing the arguments, the court allowed the application and directed that the accused be produced before the duty magistrate on June 6 for taking the signatures.
