SC to consider CID report on wealth of taxidermist on Aug 1

The Supreme Court on Tuesday put for consideration on August 1, a CID inquiry report into the alleged defrauding of over Rs 500-crore worth properties of world-ren­o­w­n­ed Mysuru-based taxidermist Edwin Joubert Van Ingen.

A three-judge bench presided over by Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed to consider the matter, though senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing Michael Floyd Eshwer, who claimed himself to be an adopted son of Van Ingen and thus the legal heir of the properties, urged the apex court to let the High Court of Karnataka decide the issue.

The CID inquiry was ordered by the high court after Eshwer sought direction for quashing an FIR registered against him by Van Ingen with Mysuru’s Nazarbad police on March 2, 2013. On Tuesday, the bench, also comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha, took on record the submission made by advocate Joseph Aristotle, who said the CID report had been filed in a sealed envelop. The court was hearing a petition filed by Tilly Gifford, who identified  herself as niece of Van Ingen. Van Ingen, who died a bachelor at the age of 101 on March 12, 2013, had lodged the FIR against Eshwer alleging cheating, fraud and forgery after.

Subsequently, the high court on June 19, 2014 not only quashed the FIR at the preliminary stage of the investigation on the compliant but also directed the Karnataka government for restoration of possession of the ‘Bissal Munti house’, 220 acres of plantation and wildlife trophies of the taxidermist with Eshwer. Gifford, a French national, approached the apex court. She contended the properties cannot be transferred in the name of the accused without obtaining mandatory permission from the RBI since Van Ingen was a British national till his death.