VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday struck down the cases registered by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) alleging insider trading in purchase of lands by some people in Amaravati.
The concept of the offence of insider trading which is essentially an offence in the field of stock market relating to selling and buying the securities and bonds cannot be applied to the offences under Indian Penal Code and cannot be read into Section 420 IPC or into any provisions in the scheme of Indian Penal Code. The said concept of offence of insider trading is totally alien to IPC and it is unknown to our criminal jurisprudence under the Indian Penal Code. So, it cannot even contextually or relatively applied to the facts of the case to prosecute the petitioners, the Court ruled while quashing the cases registered by the CID.
The CID had registered the cases against several individuals, including Kilaru Rajesh, a close aide of TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh, and Northface Holdings Private Limited director Tottempudi Venkateswara Rao, based on a complaint filed by N Suresh of Velagapudi, alleging insider trading.
It was alleged that some people with the prior knowledge of the location of the State capital, purchased lands at cheaper rates in Amaravati. Justice Ch Manavendranath Roy, who heard the writ petitions, in his 87-page verdict said there are laws to deal with insider trading in stock market and pointed out that Sections 12A and 15G of the SEBI Act deal with it.
The court stated that the lands purchased by the petitioners got valid registration documents. Purchase of lands with proper registration cannot be considered as a crime under Section 420 of IPC. No police investigation had concluded that the petitioners committed a crime. There were reports in the media about the location of State capital even before former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in on June 9, 2014 and it could not be said that the petitioners purchased the lands concealing the facts, the court observed.