2022 (7) TMI 1073

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....osed of. BAIL APPLN. 1950/2022 & CRL.M.(BAIL) 776/2022-INT. BAIL 1. This is an application for grant of regular bail to the applicant in CC No. 77/2019, SFIO v. Bhushan Steel Ltd. & Ors., under Section 447 of the Companies Act, 2013. 2. It is stated by Mr. Kumar, learned counsel appearing for the applicant (A-187), that the applicant is a Chartered Accountant by profession. 2. The applicant was partner with Mr. R.K. Mehra of Mehra Goel & Co., who was a Statutory Auditor for mostly category B and C Companies which was directly under the control of the promoters. He submits that the applicant has not appended his signature on any of the financial statement including bank loan utilization certificate of the Accused Company and it w....

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....e accused persons to face prosecution in respect of following offences: 187. A- 187: Vinay Jain: u/s 447 of the Companies Act, 2013. " 4. Mr. Vaidyanathan submits that the Applicant herein, was a Partner of Mehra Goel & Co. along with one Late Mr. R.K. Mehrotra, the said firm had conducted the audit of BSL (Accused No. 1 Company) and other Category - B Companies which was involved in the fraud of siphoning of money availed through Credit facilities from banks and then investing the same in the preference shares of BSL for managing its debt equity ratio. As per the Statements of the applicant, he was heading the team of Charted Accountants responsible for auditing Bhushan Steel and the other co-accused companies. Huge amount of f....

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.... the board of BSL. [Dr. Rajesh Kumar Yaduvanshi v. SFIO, CRL. REV.P. No. 1308 of 2019 vide order dated 21.09.2020]. d. Co-accused, Mr. Pankaj Mahajan who is also a practicing Chartered Accountant at the firm, M/s. A.C. Gupta & Associates is also admitted on bail by a coordinate bench of this court in BAIL APPLN No. 1813 of 2022 titled Pankaj Mahajan v. SFIO dated 29.06.2022. e. A coordinate bench of this court also enlarged Rupesh Purwar, co-accused no. 203 on bail. He was signatory to the Financial Statements of the company for the FY 2013-14 and 2014-15 in his capacity as the Company Secretary, which he had signed for the purpose of regulatory filing of the Company. [Rupesh Purwar v. SFIO, CRL. M.C. No. 2878 of 2022 date....

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.... this backdrop, in the absence of a fair likelihood of the trial being completed within a reasonable period, this Court must be mindful of the need to protect the personal liberty of the accused in the face of a delay in the conclusion of the trial. We are inclined to grant bail on the above ground having regard to the fact that the appellant has been in custody since 28 August 2019. In Nittin Johari (supra), this Court has held: "24. At this juncture, it must be noted that even as per Section 212(7) of the Companies Act, the limitation under Section 212(6) with respect to grant of bail is in addition to those already provided in CrPC. Thus, it is necessary to advert to the principles governing the grant of bail under Section 439 o....