Agartala, Nov 19: The High Court of Tripura has passed an order to the Government of Tripura for appointing special prosecutor to expedite the cases related to the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) as well as to speed up the process for attachment of the properties of the accused companies.

The order passed by the division bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S G Chattopadhyay after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on Tuesday last also stated that steps for attachment of the properties of the accused need to be taken up at the earliest.

The state government in an affidavit appraised the High Court that investigation in 71 cases was already completed by the SIT and only one other case was pending for conclusion while charge sheets were filed against 480 accused persons.

The High Court viewed that specially appointed counsel would be less burdened with work and would have more time and interest to prosecute the charge sheet submitted. Accordingly, the High Court directed that necessary number of counsel may be appointed in various Courts where all the charge sheets have been submitted by the SIT within a period of two weeks.

“They shall in turn submit weekly reports to the Head of the SIT which shall ensure that all necessary steps as required from the prosecution is taken up at an early date. In particular, we direct that the steps for attachment of the properties of the accused need to be taken up at the earliest and we call upon the Special Judges of the Special Courts also to take up these issues with the due urgency that the matter deserves,” the order said.

As several of the accused persons as well as assets of the accused Companies and Directors are located outside Tripura, the High Court called upon the Union of India to issue necessary instructions to the Assistant Solicitor General where requests are sent from the State of Tripura pertaining to any action that needs to be taken vis-a-vis the attachment of the properties of the accused.

According to the order, the learned ASGs of the various states may be requested to extend the kind assistance in enforcement of law. In the present case, the IG heading the SIT may make such requests to the concerned ASGs of the State through the office of the ASG, Tripura who is requested to extend his kind assistance in this regard.

“It is further brought to our notice in the present affidavit that 3(three) of the FIRs have been transferred to the CBI. Insofar as the said 3(three) cases are concerned, the learned ASG is directed to file an affidavit within four weeks containing the present status report of the said cases,” the High Court order reads.

The High Court of Tripura also directed the state government to put out advertisements in all local newspapers as well as through the medium of social media and television so that people may be made and they could lodge their claim statements along with necessary documents before the authority created by the State.

The PIL would again come up for hearing in the High Court of Tripura on January 4 next year.