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2022 (5) TMI 1542

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..... and the facts and circumstances and discussion as aforesaid, this Court is inclined to allow the instant bail application seeking regular bail. Applicant is directed to be released on bail subject to conditions imposed - application allowed. - Bail Appln. 679/2022 - - - Dated:- 10-5-2022 - Hon'ble Judges Chandra Dhari Singh, J. For the Appellant : Tanveer Ahmed Mir, Saud Khan, Prabhav Ralle and Kartik Venu, Advocates For the Respondent : Avi Singh, ASC, Karan Dhalla, Mizba Dhebar, Advocates, Mohit Mathur, Sr. Advocate, Sandeep D. Das, Shashwat Sarin and Harsh Gautam, Advocates JUDGMENT Chandra Dhari Singh, J. 1. The instant bail application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 has been filed on behalf of the applicant seeking regular bail in FIR bearing No. 50/2019 registered at Police Station EOW Mandir Marg for offences punishable under Sections 409/420/120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. 2. Status report filed by the State is taken on record. 3. The brief facts of the case are that the aforesaid FIR was lodged by M/s. Religare Finvest Limited (hereinafter RFL - New Management) with Police Station EOW Mandir Marg .....

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..... he main beneficiaries i.e. Shivinder Mohan Singh and Malvinder Mohan Singh and thereby had caused loss of more than Rs. 1500 Crores to 'RFL'. The allegation against him was that he was a member of Risk Management Committee (hereinafter RMC ) and about 13 dubious loans were granted to related parties without any documentation/collateral securities, whereas the co-accused Maninder Singh had a huge responsibility in refusing to permit/sanction or support the grant of such loans, being a member of the 'RMC. 6. The investigating agencies conducted detailed investigation and consequently filed a chargesheet dated 6th January 2020, before the CMM, Saket, District Court, New Delhi. It was submitted that on account of fact that no evidence surfaced to the detriment of the applicant during the aforesaid investigation as comprehensively conducted by Economic Offences Wing (hereinafter EOW ), therefore, the applicant was neither arraigned nor charge sheeted by the respondent. 7. The supplementary chargesheet under Section 173(8) of Cr.P.C. was filed by the Investigating Authorities qua the co-accused Maninder Singh on 20th January 2021. The said co-accused applied for grant .....

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..... by the High Court of Bombay in Laxman Irappa Hatti vs. State of Maharashtra 2004 (4) Mh. L.J. 415, wherein it is observed that filing of charge were related entities; there was inter linkage betweensheet would entitle the applicant for grant of bail as the investigation stands crystallized. 12. Learned counsel for the applicant submitted that further investigation, which otherwise is not contended by the prosecution, cannot be a ground for continued incarceration and the same has been negated by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India on a number of occasions. He has relied upon the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in P. Chidambaram vs. CBI Learned counsel submitted that the applicant was arrested on 8th December 2021, when the main charge sheet and the first supplementary charge sheet had already been filed and investigation stood crystallized. There is no denial of the fact that entire investigation is in the domain of documentary evidence which obviously has not been touched or tampered with since 2008. There is no propensity on the part of the applicant, therefore, to tamper with any kind of evidence which has been placed on record or which is in the domain of further .....

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..... FIR. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, it is prayed that the applicant be released on bail. 15. Per Contra, Mr. Avi Singh learned ASC for the State vehemently opposed the instant bail application and submitted that specific role has been assigned to the applicant in the instant case. It was alleged that three companies namely Best, Vitova and Devera were initially granted secured loans (i.e. part of 19 loans, which are investigated in this case) worth Rs. 115 crores collectively and property documents of agricultural land parcel situated in Asola were kept with the complainant company as security against the said loans. It is further submitted that later, during enquiry, it was found that land parcels were exchanged by the borrower companies without permissions and knowledge of complainant-company. The property documents which were kept with complainant-company as security were released to the alleged borrower by accused person and a share pledge agreement dated 10th January 2018 with RHC and Elive under which shares of Elive were pledged and trademark certificates with respect to Religare Brand were deposited with 'RFL', who was the then group CEO of .....

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..... Court, order dated 17th July 2020 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP (CRL.) Diary No. 13106/2020 challenging the bail order of Anil Saxena, bail order of co-accused Maninder Singh granted by Co-ordinate Bench of this Court vide order dated 5th May 2021 and order of Hon'ble Supreme Court dated 12th July 2021 challenging the bail order of Maninder Singh in SLP (CRL.) Diary No. 12290/2021. 20. The jurisdiction to grant bail must be exercised on the basis of the well-settled principles having regard to the facts and circumstances of each case. The following factors are to be taken into consideration while considering an application for bail:- (i) the nature of accusation and the severity of the punishment in the case of conviction and the nature of the materials relied upon by the prosecution; (ii) reasonable apprehension of tampering with the witnesses or apprehension of threat to the complainant or the witnesses; (iii) reasonable possibility of securing the presence of the accused at the time of trial or the likelihood of his absconding; (iv) character, behaviour and standing of the accused and the circumstances which are peculiar to the accused .....

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..... iate cases the same is also to be kept in perspective. The allegations in any event would be gone into in the trial. Even if a supplementary charge sheet is required to be filed, the respondent No. 1 was available in custody from the date of his arrest till the grant of bail. That apart, the State/Investigating Agency has not made any grievance by challenging the order, contending that his custody is required for interrogation. Even if he is on bail, he shall certainly make himself available. In addition, it is seen that the respondent No. 1 was released on bail as far back as on 13.02.2019 and there is no material on record to indicate that as on today any of the conditions imposed while granting bail has been violated. Needless to mention that if the respondent No. 1 violates the bail conditions, it will be open for the petitioner herein to approach the High Court in that regard. 23. In the instant case, it is an admitted case that co-accused Maninder Singh was enlarged on bail by the Coordinate Bench of this Court vide order dated 5th May 2021. The said bail order was challenged before the Hon'ble Supreme Court by way of filing SLP (CRL.) Diary No. 12290/2021. The Hon&# .....

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