In a criminal miscellaneous application for pre-arrest bail, the Court found prima facie evidence of the petitioner's participation in embezzlement and forgery. The Court held that the seriousness of the allegations precluded the grant of bail.
The petitioner's bail application is 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.
Crl. Misc. No.M-18443 of 2011
[1]
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
CHANDIGARH.
Crl. Misc. No. M-18443 of 2011
Date of Decision: September 16, 2011
Vijay Kumar
…..Petitioner
Vs.
State of Haryana
…..Respondent
CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M.S. BEDI.
-.-
Present:Mr.Sukhjit Singh, Advocate for the petitioner.
Ms. Sushma Chopra, Addl.A.G. Haryana.
-.-
M.M.S. BEDI, J. (ORAL)
Petitioner seeks the concession of pre-arrest bail in a case registered at the instance of Dr.Neelam Dogra, Deputy Civil Surgeon-cumNodal Officer, alleging that the petitioner was appointed as District Programme Manager by District Health and Family Welfare Society, Ambala, on contract basis. During the year 2009-10, a united grant amounting to 43.20 lacs at the rate of 10000/- for each Village Level Committee (VLC) was released by District Health and Family Welfare
Crl. Misc. No.M-18443 of 2011
[2]
Society, Ambala on July 14, 2009 to the programme officer. The amount was to be distributed in 432 Village Level Committees in Ambala District. Various articles and medical equipments were purchased by Village Legal Committees through the petitioner. The petitioner had allegedly pressurized various Village Level Committees to accept supplies and pass a resolution for such purchases and to make cash payment of bill amounts to him. A fact finding enquiry has been made by C.P. Malhotra, Manager Accounts and Sanjeev Jain, Accounts Officer. On the basis of their report, the complaint was filed by Civil Surgeon, Ambala.
Counsel for the petitioner has vehemently contended that the petitioner had no authority to deal with the financial matters under any scheme and that it was not the duty of the petitioner at any stage to disburse the amount under any scheme.
After hearing learned counsel for the petitioner and the State counsel and going through the entire police file, it is prima facie apparent from the statements recorded by the investigating officer that the petitioner had persuaded the members of various Village Level Committees to pass resolution to get the supplies against the fictitious bills. It has also transpired during investigation that the petitioner attached bogus and fabricated quotations of the firm with forged bills of supplies made to the Village Level Committees and himself received the payments from the Village Level Committees. The statements of Anganwari workers to that effect have also been recorded. Statements of proprietors of various firms have also been recorded pointing needle of suspicion towards petitioner and
Crl. Misc. No.M-18443 of 2011
[3]
his active participation in the embezzlement of the amounts by receiving the same in cash from the Village Level Committees. I do not find any force in the contention of learned counsel for the petitioner that as per the information supplied through Nodal Officer, the petitioner was not authorized signatory with no financial power relating to the grant of VLC.
In view of the seriousness of the allegations, no extraordinary exceptional circumstances exist to grant the concession of pre-arrest bail to the petitioner.
Dismissed. September 16, 2011 (M.M.S.BEDI) sanjay JUDGE
2 issues framed by the court
Whether pre-arrest bail should be granted to the petitioner despite serious allegations of financial fraud.
Whether the petitioner was authorized to disburse funds under the relevant scheme.
Vijay Kumar
State of Haryana
M.M.S. Bedi
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
