Abhay Raj Verma and 6 Others Vs State of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Lko

Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC-LKO:5056

Court No. - 29

Case :- CRIMINAL MISC ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION U/S 438 CR.P.C. No. - 47 of 2025

Applicant :- Abhay Raj Verma And 6 Others Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Lko Counsel for Applicant :- Ajmal Khan,Javed Khan Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.

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Hon'ble Subhash Vidyarthi,J.

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Heard the learned counsel for the applicant as well as Sri Anurag Verma, the learned Additional Government Advocate appearing on behalf of the State and perused the records.

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The instant application has been filed by the applicant seeking anticipatory bail in F.I.R. bearing Case Crime No.12 of 2022, under Sections 409, 120B I.P.C., 13(1)(A) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, registered at Police Station Lucknow Vigilance, District Lucknow.

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The accused are the Village Development Officers. Allegation against them is that they had made excess payment for installation of dustbins and thus misappropriated the excess amount and caused loss to the Government Exchequer.

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Learned counsel for the accused applicants submits that three firms were recommended by the District Panchayati Raj Officer for installation of dustbins. The applicants got the quotations from three firms and provided the contract to the firm with lowest quotation and got the dust bins installed. It is further submitted that the FIR has been registered against as many as 182 people in respect of 66 villages. No proceeding for recovery of any excess amount has been initiated against any of the applicants. Learned counsel for the applicants has further submitted that several co-accused persons have already been

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granted anticipatory bail by means of orders dated 23.06.2023, 31.07.2023 and 26.09.2023 passed by this Court in Criminal Misc. Anticipatory Bail Applications U/S 438 Cr.P.C. Nos. 1430 of 2023, 1677 of 2023 and 2101 of 2023.

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In the affidavit filed in support of the anticipatory bailapplication, it has been contended that the applicants are innocent, and they have falsely been implicated in the present case.

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Mr. Anurag Verma, learned A.G.A.-I has submitted that dustbins has been purchased at the rates higher than the market rates in violation of the settled norms without inviting any tender, which resulted in undue final loss having been caused to the public exchequer.

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Having considered the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case and keeping in view the fact that the accusedapplicants are Village Development Officers and it would be difficult for them to ignore the direction issued by the District Panchayat Raj Officers, I am of the view that the aforesaid facts are sufficient for making out a case for granting anticipatory bail to the applicants and that several similarly situated coaccused persons have already been granted anticipatory bail, the anticipatory bail application of the applicants is thus allowed .

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In the event of arrest/ appearance of applicants, namely- Abhay Raj Verma, Ravi Kant Verma, Keshav Shukla, Parveen Kumar, Diksha Tripathi, Abhinav Mehrotra and Amit Pandey before the learned Trial Court in the aforesaid case crime, they shall be released on anticipatory bail on their furnishing personal bond and two solvent sureties, each in the like amount, to the satisfaction of S.H.O./Court concerned on the following conditions and subject to any other conditions

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that may be fixed by the Trial Court:

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(i) that the applicants shall make themselves available for interrogation by a police officer as and when required;

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(ii) that the applicants shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the Court or to any police officer or tamper with the evidence;

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(iii) that the applicants shall not leave India without the previous permission of the court;

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(iv) that the applicants shall appear before the trial court on each date fixed, unless personal presence is exempted; and

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(v) that the applicants shall not pressurize/ intimidate the prosecution witness.

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(Subhash Vidyarthi,J.)

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Order Date :- 24.1.2025 -Amit K-

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Digitally signed by :- AMIT KUMAR High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench

Abhay Raj Verma and 6 Others v. State of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Lko

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Abhay Raj Verma and 6 Others v. State of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Lko

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