The High Court of Punjab and Haryana dismissed a petition for pre-arrest bail under Section 438 CrPC. The court rejected the prayer due to the gravity of embezzlement allegations and the investigating agency's need for custodial interrogation to probe further factors.
The prayer for pre-arrest bail was rejected, and the petition was dismissed.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
Criminal Misc. No. M-10190 of 2010
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH
Criminal Misc. No. M-10190 of 2010 Date of decision : 25.04.2011
Janam Singh and others
....Petitioners
V/s
State of Punjab
....Respondent
BEFORE : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJAN GUPTA
Present: Mr. D.S. Pheruman, Advocate for the petitioners.
Mr. Shilesh Gupta, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab.
Dr. Anmol Rattan Sidhu, Sr. Advocate with
Mr. Nandan Jindal, Advocate for the complainant.
RAJAN GUPTA J. (ORAL)
This is a petition filed under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking pre-arrest bail in a case registered against the petitioners vide FIR No. 32 dated 12.03.2011 under Sections 406/408/465/467/468/120-B IPC at Police Station Mukerian, District Hoshiarpur.
Learned counsel for the petitioners has argued that petitioners have been falsely implicated in the case. In fact it is the officers of the Mill who indulge in illegal activities and the petitioners have just been made scape goat in the matter.
Learned State counsel has, however, vehemently opposed the prayer. He submits that petitioners used to either overweigh the loaded
Criminal Misc. No. M-10190 of 2010
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trolleys or to weigh the same twice and pocketed the excess money. He submits that CCTV coverage of the entire modus operandi was available with the investigating agency. He, on instructions from Rakesh Aggarwal, SSP Hoshiarpur, who is present in court, further submits that custodial interrogation of the petitioners is required to investigate certain other aspects of the matter.
I have heard learned counsel for the parties.
The FIR was lodged on the basis of written complaint submitted by Anil Sharma, authorized signatory of Indian Sucrose Ltd, Mukerian. He stated that all the petitioners connived together to embezzle the funds of the company. They would take the loaded trolley on the weighbridge in front of the scanner without actually weighing and thereafter they would reverse the same trolley and show it again in front of the scanner. In this manner, they would get one genuine and one fake slip of payment of sugarcane and some of the farmers also joined hands with them. By issuing bogus payment slips they duped the company of huge amounts of money. When the modus operandi came to notice, the company deployed one employee as a decoy. He reported the entire matter to the Administration. One of the employee namely Chandan Giri confessed that he had embezzled the amount of `70,000/- and deposited the same in his father’s account in branches of Punjab National Bank, Gazipur and Mukerian. The complainant alleged that the fraud runs into lacs of rupees. According to investigating agency, CCTV footage of operation of the manner in which the petitioners were duping the company were also obtained.
Criminal Misc. No. M-10190 of 2010
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In view of the seriousness of allegations, stage of investigation and the stand of the investigating agency that custodial interrogation of the petitioners is required, I am of the considered view that prayer for pre-arrest bail deserves to be rejected. The petition is, thus, devoid of merit.
Dismissed. April 25, 2011 Ajay
(RAJAN GUPTA) JUDGE
3 issues framed by the court
Whether to grant pre-arrest bail under Section 438 CrPC in a conspiracy to embezzle funds case.
Whether the proposed custodial interrogation justifies rejection of pre-arrest bail based on serious allegations.
Whether the petitioners are guilty of conspiring to duped the company by counterfeit payment slips.
1 provisions across 1 enactments
Janam Singh and others
State of Punjab
Rajan Gupta
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
