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TMI Blog2022 (12) TMI 361X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ound is made out for granting bail in his favour - Petition dismissed. - CRM-M-49509-202 and CRM-M-50110-2021 - - - Dated:- 1-12-2022 - HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PANKAJ JAIN Present : Mr. Gulshan Mehta, Advocate for the petitioner(s) Mr. Sumit Jain, Addl. Advocate General, Haryana for the respondent-State. PANKAJ JAIN, J. (ORAL) By way of present order the afore-captioned petitions filed under Section 439 Cr.P.C. seeking regular bail on behalf of the petitioners in case FIR No.521 dated 8th of September, 2020 registered for the offences punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B IPC, 1860, at Police Station Chandni Bagh, Panipat, Haryana are being disposed off. 2. Names of the petitioners did not figure in the FIR. However, during investigation it was found that : 2. That the petitioner has not come with clean hands and has concealed the real, material, true and important facts from this Hon'ble Court. The case of the prosecution for the kind perusal of this Hon'ble Court is as under :- i. That the Taxation Inspector (Sale Tax), Ward-5, Panipat, Plot No.179, Sector-25, Part-II, HUDA, Panipat vide office memo No.3539/TOI (Ward-) d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n the basis of above said facts and allegations, formal FIR No.521 dated 08/09/2020 under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of Indian Penal Code was registered at P.S. Chandni Bagh, Panipat. ii. That after registration of the FIR, the investigation was carried out by local police as well as Economic Crime Wing, Panipat ASI Vinod Kumar No.906 had served the notice u/s 91 Cr.PC. to the complainant and collected the relevant records pertaining to M/s Khushi Enterprises and others connected to it and from careful perusal it has been found that: a. The culprits have used mobile No 8929117540 and 8818953952 and gmail id [email protected] in getting register above said firm on the online portal of complainant department and another gmail ID of subjected firm was found as [email protected]. b. The culprits have given address while registration of M/s Khushi Enterprises, as Shop No 253, Ground Floor, Sector-12, Panipat. c. That an account No. 10039194939 of IDFC First Bank, Sector-16, Faridabad of the said firm M/s Khushi Enterprises in the bank the mobile No.9582853258 and gmail id khushienterprises1234@ gmail.com were used. iii. That during the enquiry by the polic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... /- from the dealer/co- accused Dinesh S/o Nursy Singh of M/s Khushi Enterprises. f. That most of the concerned firm who had done business with M/s Khushi Enterprises were joined in the investigation, who had stated that they had done business with M/s Khushi Enterprises through its dealer/accused Rakesh Puri and agent/accused Dinesh Raj and Vishal Bansal (who had stated himself to be the owner of M/s Khushi Enterprises to the other firm) and most of them stated that fake bills of M/s Khushi Enterprises were provided to them by the accused. They have recorded their statements u/s 161 Cr.P.C. to this effect also. g. That an amount of Rs.20 Lac on 03/04/2019, Rs.24,14,000/- on 08/04/2019 and Rs.30 Lac on 11/04/2019 in account No.10700-01082048 of Bandhan Bank in the name of firm M/s Saraswati Enterprises in the name of co-accused Rakesh Puri from bank account of subjected firm M/s Khushi Enterprises. The statement of account No.10170001082048 of M/s Saraswati Enterprises depicting therein the relevant entries is enclosed herewith as Annexure R-2 for the kind perusal of this Hon'ble Court. The above said material evidence was sufficient with the police to arrest the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o sit in his office in the name of Bansal Group at B-6, Sushant Lok, F-1 Gurugram. In the said office, Sourabh Bansal used to do the work of get open the account and Pankaj Bansal used to work as CA and also to provide GSTIN number by preparing company. Except this Rahul Nalonia used to do work for preparing the fake bills and also to collect money. Rakesh Puri and Dinesh Bansal had paid Rs.40,000/- to me for this work, which I had spent on food etc. The petitioner has not effected any recovery in this case. 3. Ld. Counsel for the petitioners submits that neither of the petitioner was named in the FIR. Investigation already stands concluded as report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. stands filed with the Court concerned. The petitioners are in custody since 5th of August, 2021. It has been averred that despite presentation of report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. on 25th of October, 2021, the trial has not commenced. He further submits that even as per the prosecution version there is no incriminating evidence qua petitioner-Arjun alias Muggu as the concerns having business with Ms. Khushi Enterprises are stated to have dealt with co-accused Rakesh Puri, Dinesh Raj and Vishal Bansal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... intimidate the witnesses or if there is material to show that he will use his liberty to subvert justice or tamper with the evidence, then bail will be refused. 7. There is no denial to the fact that the economic offences constitute a separate class of their own, but trite it is that presumption of innocence is one of the bedrocks on which the criminal jurisprudence rests. Time and again, Apex Court has reiterated the need to integrate the right of investigating agencies to have effective interrogation of the accused with the right of liberty of the accused. While dealing extensively with the rights of the accused in the economic offences, Apex Court in the case of Satender Kumar Antil vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and another, 2022 AIR (Supreme Court) 3386 held as under:- xx xx xx 66. What is left for us now to discuss are the economic offences. The question for consideration is whether it should be treated as a class of its own or otherwise. This issue has already been dealt with by this Court in the case of P. Chidambaram v. Directorate of Enforcement, (2020) 13 SCC 791 , after taking note of the earlier decisions governing the field. The gravity of th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... will not be the basis for either grant or refusal of bail though it may have a bearing on principle. But ultimately the consideration will have to be on case-to-case basis on the facts involved therein and securing the presence of the accused to stand trial. Sanjay Chandra v. CBI (2012) 1 SCC 40: 39. Coming back to the facts of the present case, both the courts have refused the request for grant of bail on two grounds: the primary ground is that the offence alleged against the accused persons is very serious involving deep-rooted planning in which, huge financial loss is caused to the State exchequer; the secondary ground is that of the possibility of the accused persons tampering with the witnesses. In the present case, the charge is that of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property and forgery for the purpose of cheating using as genuine a forged document. The punishment for the offence is imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years. It is, no doubt, true that the nature of the charge may be relevant, but at the same time, the punishment to which the party may be liable, if convicted, also bears upon the issue. Therefore, in determining whet ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... failure by the Criminal Courts would constitute an affront to liberty. It is the pious duty of the Criminal Court to zealously guard and keep a consistent vision in safeguarding the constitutional values and ethos. A criminal court must uphold the constitutional thrust with responsibility mandated on them by acting akin to a high priest. This Court in Arnab Manoranjan Goswami v. State of Maharashtra, (2021) 2 SCC 427 , has observed that: 67. Human liberty is a precious constitutional value, which is undoubtedly subject to regulation by validly enacted legislation. As such, the citizen is subject to the edicts of criminal law and procedure. Section 482 recognises the inherent power of the High Court to make such orders as are necessary to give effect to the provisions of CrPC or prevent abuse of the process of any court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice . Decisions of this Court require the High Courts, in exercising the jurisdiction entrusted to them under Section 482, to act with circumspection. In emphasising that the High Court must exercise this power with a sense of restraint, the decisions of this Court are founded on the basic principle that the due enfor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ss the spectrum-the district judiciary, the High Courts and the Supreme Court-to ensure that the criminal law does not become a weapon for the selective harassment of citizens. Courts should be alive to both ends of the spectrum-the need to ensure the proper enforcement of criminal law on the one hand and the need, on the other, of ensuring that the law does not become a ruse for targeted harassment. Liberty across human eras is as tenuous as tenuous can be. Liberty survives by the vigilance of her citizens, on the cacophony of the media and in the dusty corridors of courts alive to the rule of (and not by) law. Yet, much too often, liberty is a casualty when one of these components is found wanting. (emphasis supplied) 8. Similarly, in the case of Suresh Kalmadi vs. CBI, 2012(5) RCR (Cri.) 556 the Apex Court held:- xx xx xx However, the evidence to prove accusations is primarily documentary in nature besides a few material witnesses. As held in Sanjay Chandra (supra) if seriousness of the offence on the basis of punishment provided is the only criteria, the Courts would not be balancing the Constitutional Rights but rather recalibrating the scales of justi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The offences alleged are economic offences which has resulted in loss to the State exchequer. Though, they contend that there is possibility of the appellants tampering witnesses, they have not placed any material in support of the allegation. In our view, seriousness of the charge is, no doubt, one of the relevant considerations while considering bail applications but that is not the only test or the factor : The other factor that also requires to be taken note of is the punishment that could be imposed after trial and conviction, both under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act. Otherwise, if the former is the only test, we would not be balancing the Constitutional Rights but rather recalibration of the scales of justice. The provisions of Cr.P.C. confer discretionary jurisdiction on Criminal Courts to grant bail to accused pending trial or in appeal against convictions, since the jurisdiction is discretionary, it has to be exercised with great care and caution by balancing valuable right of liberty of an individual and the interest of the society in general. In our view, the reasoning adopted by the learned District Judge, which is affirmed by the High Court, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... officials. This is not a case based on the oral testimony of individuals. No doubt the allegations against the petitioners are serious in terms of the alleged huge loss caused to the State exchequer, that by itself should not deter this Court from enlarging the accused on bail specially when they are already behind bars for about seven or more months. I do not see any good reason to continue the judicial custody of the petitioners that too after completion of investigation and submission of chargesheets/ supplementary charge-sheets. The conclusion of the trial will take long time and their presence in custody may not be necessary for further investigation. 13. In view of this, I am of the view that petitioners are entitled to grant of bail pending trial on stringent conditions in order to allay the apprehension of the investigating agency. It is not necessary to canvass and go into the details of various other issues canvassed by learned counsel for the parties and the cases relied upon by learned counsel for the petitioners in support of their contentions. I have not expressed any opinion on the merit of the case. 10. Coming to the facts of the present case the investi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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