Shambhu Prasad Singh Vs CBI (Delhi High Court)
The petition was decided by the Delhi High Court and arose from a challenge to a common order dated 14.05.2025 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge dismissing two applications filed under Section 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (now Section 94 of the BNSS, 2023). The petitioner, an accused in a loan fraud case investigated by the CBI, sought summoning of original records from the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) and production of documents relating to an earlier complaint received by the CBI.
The petitioner was a Director of a company that had availed credit facilities from a nationalised bank and later defaulted, leading to declaration of the account as a non-performing asset. Recovery proceedings were initiated before the DRT, and negotiations for a one-time settlement were held. Subsequently, the CBI registered an FIR in 2014 on the basis of a complaint filed by the bank and submitted a charge sheet in 2015.
During trial, the petitioner received copies of un-relied documents in January 2025 and claimed to have discovered, for the first time, the existence of an earlier complaint dated 07.03.2013 filed by a bank official on the same subject matter against the same accused. The petitioner alleged that the outcome of this earlier complaint or any preliminary enquiry report had not been disclosed. He moved applications seeking summoning of original DRT records in two recovery applications and production of the original 2013 complaint with annexures and its outcome.
