Gujarat High Court Permits Multi-Crore Bank Fraud Accused To Travel Abroad To 'Explore Business Opportunity'

The Gujarat High Court has permitted director of IT firm, Sai InfoSystem (India) Ltd Sunil Kakkad who has been booked in alleged multi-crore bank fraud case, to travel to UAE for exploring business opportunities with companies to outsource back-end IT Support & Enterprises Resource Planning software requirements to India.

Kakkad was reportedly arrested in 2014 in Liberia and has been allegedly accused of cheating public sector banks, which is being probed by the CBI. A related money laundering case is being probed by the ED. 

A Look out Circular (LOC) was issued against Kakkad at the instance of the Bank of Baroda the respondent bank in the present plea.The counsel appearing for Bank of Baroda opposed Kakkad's travel plea arguing that he had not paid a single penny to the various banks which have advanced huge credit facilities to Sai Infosystem (India) Ltd. of which he is a promoter and key Director. Meanwhile Kakkad's counsel argued that the high court had on various occasions permitted him to travel abroad and on each occasion a separate undertaking was filed by Kakkad.

Kakkad's counsel said that he intends to travel U.A.E. for the "purpose of exploring business opportunities with companies to outsource that back-end IT Support & Enterprises Resource Planning software requirements to India". It was submitted that purchase orders have been secured by him for this purpose. It is further submitted that the Kakkad is required to travel U.A.E. for successful implementation of the order. 

After hearing the arguments, Justice Devan M Desai in his order said:

"Considering the averments made in the application and in affidavit-in-reply on behalf of the Respondent No.4 and more particularly, in absence of any serious contention made by rest of the Respondents, I am of the view that application requires consideration. The Applicant is permitted to travel U.A.E. from 07.06.2025 to 27.06.2025 on fulfilling following conditions..."

The conditions include that Kakkad shall deposit Rs.25 Lakh by Demand Draft in the name of Registrar, High Court of Gujarat, which shall be returned to him after he returns from his trip. It further includes that Kakkad shall not open or close any bank account overseas and shall not enter into any kind of property transactions abroad. 

The bank's counsel argued that Kakkad is trying to take benefit of so-called legal acumen in escaping from the liability for repayment of huge decretal dues instead of using the same for settling the huge outstanding dues of various lenders. It was submitted that if the travel permission is granted, there are  chances that he may flee from justice and thereby the proceedings pending before various forums would be unnecessarily delayed.

It was further argued that Kakkad had Repayment Plan by way of Affidavit dated 28.08.2024 under Section 105 of IBC for a sum of Rs.50 Lakhs to various stakeholders against the amount of Rs.29,47,62,43,121.00 claimed by them which is payable in 18 months from the effective date. It was claimed that this repayment plan submitted by the applicant as personal guarantor has been dissented to by all the creditors and the last date to cast vote was 15.10.2024.

Case title: SUNIL SURENDRAKUMAR KAKKAD Versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

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