TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2016 (4) TMI 1457
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....y Limited (hereinafter referred to as 'MEGA') lodged an FIR with Gandhinagar Zone Police Station on 1.4.2015 against seven accused persons named therein, inter alia, alleging therein that those accused named in the FIR have committed above referred offences describing the manner and method by which they have committed fraud and have misappropriated huge amount to the tune of Rs.113.22 Crores. 2.2. By Resolution dated 7.5.2009, State of Gujarat established a Company under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 for speed transportation by establishing Metro Rail between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The said Company MEGA was registered on 4.2.2010 under the Companies Act, 1956. While establishing such Metro Rail between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, the State of Gujarat thought it fit to appoint an experienced Administrative Officer as Chairman of the Company. Since the applicant, an ex-IAS Officer who had worked as an Administrative Officer with the State of Gujarat for considerable long time of 17 years, he came to be appointed as Chairman of the said Company on 8.4.2011. He was appointed as Executive Chairman of MEGA from 4.8.2011 upto 29.8.2013. 2.3 The applicant was authorized to....
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....8.2015 dismissed the said application. 3. The applicant preferred Criminal Misc. Application No.19352 of 2015 before this Court and requested to release him on regular bail. The matter was heard. Mr. Mitesh Amin, learned Public Prosecutor submitted that since it was a huge project and number of accused are involved and there would be possibility of gathering some more material, the investigation is being continued and the State needs some time to file supplementary charge-sheet. He had requested to grant six weeks time for submitting supplementary charge-sheet. By oral order dated 17.12.2015, this Court disposed of the said application permitting the Investigating Agency to carry on with the investigation and complete the same within a period of six weeks. It was further directed that the Investigating Agency shall supply the documents gathered during further investigation. The applicant was, therefore, permitted to withdrew the said application with a liberty to file fresh application directly before this Court on completion of the said period. 4. Hence this application. 5. Pursuant to the notice issued by this Court, Mr. Mitesh Amin, learned Public Prosecutor has appeared for ....
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....he present application may be considered. 8. In alternate to the above submissions, he argued that even if some prima facie case is made out against the applicant, he may not be kept behind bars for a long period since the trial has yet not commenced and even charge is not framed by the learned Sessions Judge. He would submit that by catena of decisions, the Hon'ble Supreme Court, while considering a case under Section 439 of the Code, has laid down a principle that before a conviction, a person should not be kept behind bars unless, if the prosecution establishes that there is danger of accused absconding or flee and would not be available at the time of trial if he is released on bail, and character behaviour means position and standing of the accused likelihood of offence being repeated, reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being tampered with etc; which is not the case of the prosecution since no such affidavit has been filed before this Court. He would submit that the case is entirely based on documentary evidence and there would be no question of tampering with the witnesses or any documents. He would submit that the applicant was released on temporary bail by this C....
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....tuated at Matriz No.383, Survey No.238/10 and 238/11 at village Varca- Salcete, Dist. South Goa, Goa - 403 721 and is ready to file an undertaking that the said property shall not be transferred till further orders passed by this Court. He would further submit that the Company has accordingly authorized one of the shareholders having 0.02% to file such undertaking before this Court. He would further submit that the applicant is ready and willing to deposit an amount of Rs.1 Crore before the Trial Court within a reasonable time. He, therefore, would submit that the application be allowed. 12. On the other hand, Mr. Mitesh Amin, learned Public Prosecutor appearing for the respondent - State would submit that the applicant is king pin of the entire scam. Having worked with the State of Gujarat for 17 years as an IAS officer, huge responsibility was handed over to him for installation of important Project which would have helped speedy public transporting between capital of Gujarat Gandhinagar and Metro city Ahmedabad. Though the applicant has discontinued his office as an IAS officer, having found him eligible for carrying out such a huge task, the State had full trust in him and, th....
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....ging to Neesa Group. He has also relied upon statements of one Rasendu Prabhulal Vora, a Chartered Engineer and Government Valuer who has stated that though he has not certified the completion certificates, the same were produced before MEGA for which an amount has been paid by the applicant to his own Companies. He would submit that total amount siphoned away by the applicant is about Rs.212 Crores which may rise in future since the investigation is going on. He would submit that it is a systematic fraud committed by the applicant who is a public servant and he was working in capacity of a public servant being the Chairman of Company established and fully owned by the State of Gujarat. He would submit that the applicant is facing charges for the offence punishable under Section 409 of Indian Penal Code for which sentence is prescribed upto imprisonment for life or may extend to 10 years. He would submit that since the applicant is facing charges under Prevention of Corruption Act, the trial is going to be conducted by the Special Judge and, therefore, there are all possibilities that the trial may end within short time. He would submit that there is a great loss to the public exch....
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....nging to Neesa Group. The statement of Rajesh Mishra, prima facie, does not help the prosecution. In the statement of one Jignesh Shah, he has stated about the transaction took place with regard to the payment at the instance of the present applicant. The statement of one Patanjali J. Mishra who is working as Executive Engineer, prima facie, suggests that the Agencies to whom the amount has been paid by MEGA at the instance of the applicant, no work has been carried out by the said Agencies. The statement of Ramesh K. Makwana who is a businessman suggests that he had paid Rs.50 Lacs in cash to the present applicant. However, prima facie, there is no evidence to the same. The statement of Ahmedbhai Chhotubhai Shaikh through whose account, some transactions have taken place, however, suggests that some cash amounts were withdrawn from his account which was earlier deposited at the instance of Kaushik Patel allegedly on behalf of the present applicant. Several allegations have been made by other witnesses on the same line against the present applicant. The report prepared by the Committee does suggests that though the amount has been diverted from MEGA, the work against the same has n....
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....the case of Sanjay Chandra v. Central Bureau of Investigation (Supra) are not reproduced since the same are quoted from the judgment referred herein above. However, in the background of aforesaid facts, relevant paragraph Nos.41, 42, 43 and 44 of the said decision are reproduced herein below :- "41. This Court in Gurcharan Singh and Ors. Vs. State AIR 1978 SC 179 observed that two paramount considerations, while considering petition for grant of bail in non-bailable offence, apart from the seriousness of the offence, are the likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice and his tampering with the prosecution witnesses. Both of them relate to ensure of the fair trial of the case. Though, this aspect is dealt by the High Court in its impugned order, in our view, the same is not convincing. 42. When the under-trial prisoners are detained in jail custody to an indefinite period, Article 21 of the Constitution is violated. Every person, detained or arrested, is entitled to speedy trial, the question is : whether the same is possible in the present case. 43. There are seventeen accused persons. Statement of the witnesses runs to several hundred pages and the 5 documents on which r....
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....nd any ground to interfere with the view taken by the trial Court and the High Court in declining bail." 22. Further, unreported decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Kailash Ramkishan Gupta v. State of Gujarat and another (Supra) relied upon by Mr. Amin, in my opinion, is not applicable in the facts of the present case. 23. Considering the entire facts and circumstances of the case and the papers of investigation and charge-sheet and supplementary charge-sheet, I am of the opinion that the application requires consideration. Hence, the application is allowed and the applicant is ordered to be released on bail in connection with FIR bearing I C.R. No.3 of 2015 registered with CID Crime Gandhinagar Zone Police Station, Dist. Gandhinagar, on executing a bond of Rs.5,00,000/- (Rupees Five Lacs only) with two sureties of Rs.2,50,000/- each to the satisfaction of the trial Court and subject to the conditions that he shall; [a] not take undue advantage of liberty or misuse liberty; [b] not act in a manner injuries to the interest of the prosecution; [c] surrender passport, if any, to the lower court within a week if not seized by the concerned authority; [d] ....