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2020 (9) TMI 1269

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....ank on 18.9.2018. He had also withdrawn Rs.1.05 Crore from the Accounts of the Customers and in this regard FIR No.161 dated 21.09.2018 was registered against him. Apart from it, the Petitioner had also indulged in fraudulent transactions by preparing forged documents in order to commit fraud of Rs.97,59,955/- which led to registration of this FIR. He used to operate inoperative accounts of the customers by issuing Cheque Books in the name of those customers of the Bank and used to withdraw the amount from their accounts fraudulently. 3. Ld. Counsel for Petitioner has argued that the Petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case as no fraud as alleged was committed by him. He has further contended that the Petitioner cannot be held responsible for the alleged fraud as the documents were being dealt by other officials of the Bank also. Even as per the allegations in the FIR, no offence is made out against the Petitioner as the account holders were operating their accounts and making the necessary withdrawals and deposits. The Petitioner was not the custodian of the said accounts nor he has made any entry in the record showing any transfer of the withdrawals as alleged ....

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....ty as Head Cashier of the Bank, had illegally and wrongly withdrawn the money of different persons by indulging in fraudulent transactions and by preparing forged documents in order to commit fraud of Crores of Rupees. To substantiate this contention, the State has placed on record the voluminous papers running into almost 450 Pages, which form a part of Challan already submitted against the Petitioner. This Court has perused the documents/material collected against him during investigation which form part of the Challan papers. On perusal of the same, it can be said that there is sufficient material available to prosecute the Petitioner for the offences imputed to him, although Ld. Counsel for Petitioner has submitted that the material so collected during investigation is insufficient and incomplete. 6. In this regard, Ld. Counsel for Petitioner has drawn the attention of Court to the fact that the Challan against the Petitioner was submitted on 22.5.2020, certain vital parts of investigation had not been completed inasmuch as even the sample signature of the Petitioner had not been collected during such investigation nor any substantive action was taken against his alleged accom....

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....is caused to the State exchequer; the secondary ground is that the possibility of the accused persons tempering with the witnesses. In the present case, the charge is that of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery for the purpose of cheating using as genuine a forged document. The punishment of the offence is punishment for a term which may extend to seven years. It is, no doubt, true that the nature of the charge may be relevant, but at the same time, the punishment to which the party may be liable, if convicted, also bears upon the issue. Therefore, in determining whether to grant bail, both the seriousness of the charge and the severity of the punishment should be taken into consideration. The grant or refusal to grant bail lies within the discretion of the Court. The grant or denial is regulated, to a large extent, by the facts and circumstances of each particular case. But at the same time, right to bail is not to be denied merely because of the sentiments of the community against the accused. The primary purposes of bail in a criminal case are to relieve the accused of imprisonment, to relieve the State of the burden of keeping him, pending the trial,....

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....any years of his life spent in custody? Is Article 21 of the Constitution, which is the most basic of all the fundamental rights in our Constitution, not violated in such a case? Of course this is not the only factor, but it is certainly one of the important factors in deciding whether to grant bail. In the present case the respondent has already spent 66 days in custody (as stated in Para 2 of his counter-affidavit), and we see no reason why he should be denied bail. A doctor incarcerated for a long period may end up like Dr. Manette in Charles Dicken's novel A Tale of Two Cities, who forgot his profession and even his name in the Bastille." 27. In 'Bihar Fodder Scam', this Court, taking into consideration the seriousness of the charges alleged and the maximum sentence of imprisonment that could be imposed including the fact that the appellants were in jail for a period more than six months as on the date of passing of the order, was of the view that the further detention of the appellants as pre-trial prisoners would not serve any purpose. 28. We are conscious of the fact that the accused are charged with economic offences of huge magnitude. We are also conscious of the....

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....heet, prima facie it cannot be contended that the respondent/CBI has failed to make out a case of conspiracy for the offences punishable under Section 120B I.P.C. read with Sections 7, 8 and 12 of the PC Act. In any event, at this stage, the allegations levelled by the prosecution have to be taken on their face value. The Court must also ensure that there is no pre-judging and no prejudice is caused to either side, and the merits of the case must be left to be decided by the trial court [Ref: Puran Etc. v. Rambilas & Anr. (2001) 6 SCC 338, Ram Govind Upadhyay v. Sudarshan Singh and Ors. (2002) 3 SCC 598 and Kalyan Chandra Sarkar v. Rajesh Ranjan @ Pappu Yadav & Anr, 2004 (7) SCC 528]." 11. The situation of the Petitioner clearly appears to be covered by the ratio of aforesaid decisions since admittedly the Challan has been submitted against him more than four months ago and there is no requirement for his further detention especially in view of the fact that he was taken into custody in the present case before he could be released on bail granted to him by the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Ld. State Counsel has nevertheless also contended that considering the nature of offences in....