Supreme Court Questions UP Police For Not Arresting Satinder Singh Bhasin Despite His Non-Surrender After Bail Cancellation

While passing an order for immediate surrender by businessman Satinder Singh Bhasin, the Supreme Court today questioned the Uttar Pradesh police authorities over their failure to arrest him when he failed to surrender after cancellation of bail.

Statedly, the Court expressed that the police seemed to be colluding with Bhasin. Considering the authorities' request for time to make the arrest, the matter was however posted to Monday.

During the hearing, the Court drew the authorities' attention to Article 144 of the Constitution, which requires every authority in India to act in aid of the Supreme Court.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh was dealing with a miscellaneous application filed in a writ petition by Bhasin, whose bail was recently cancelled by the Court over his failure to settle complainants' claims in connection with the 'Grand Venice' project.

To recap, the Grand Venice project consisted of a mall and commercial tower. Approximately 63 FIRs were lodged in connection therewith in the States of New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Bhasin was accused of non-delivery of residential units, siphoning of funds, and impropriety in allotment of land in collusion with State officials.

Vide order dated November 6, 2019, the top Court granted Bhasin bail subject to certain conditions. One of the conditions imposed was that he shall make every possible attempt to settle the claims of the complainants.

Subsequently, a Miscellaneous Application was filed by the allottees on October 20, 2023, seeking cancellation of the bail, on the ground that Bhasin failed to make any concrete attempt to settle the grievances. It was claimed that, although he entered into settlement agreements with a few allottees, possession of the units was not given. He was also accused of siphoning of company funds to the tune of Rs. 50 crores to comply with the Court's order.

Earlier this month, the top Court cancelled Bhasin's bail as he failed to comply with the condition to settle claims of the flat allottees, and also for siphoning of Rs 50 lakhs from the funds of Bhasin Infotech and Infrastructure Private Limited for deposit as bail condition, despite the Court's direction that the said amount should be from his personal account.

Case Title: SATINDER SINGH BHASIN v. GOVERNMENT OF NCT OF DELHI | MA 1391/2026 in MA 239/2024 in W.P.(Crl.) No. 242/2019