TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (3) TMI 1440
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....rder dated 12.11.2014 considering the facts and circumstances of the case, nature of the offences committed, seriousness of economic offence, larger interest of the society and State and moreover taking into account the progress of investigation was pleased to reject the bail application. After rejection of the bail application on 12.11.2014 but during pendency of this bail application, charge sheet was submitted on 11.12.2014. 2. It reveals from the charge sheet that RC Case No. 47/S/2014-SCB/Kol. dated 5.6.2014 was registered treating the First Information Reports of eight cases as original FIR of the case pursuant to the direction of the Hon'ble Supreme Court dated 9.5.2014 passed in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 401 of 2013 filed by Sri Subrata Chattoraj and Writ Petition (Civil) No. 413 of 2013 filed by Sri Alok Jena. Those eight cases are Badambadi P.S. Case No. 5 of 2013 dated 5.1.2013, Kharvel Nagar P.S. Case No. 44(4) of 2013 dated 7.2.2013, Bhanjanagar P.S. Case No. 95 of 2013 dated 2.5.2013, Angul P.S. Case No. 282 of 2013 dated 3.5.2013, Bargarh Town P.S. Case No. 149 of 2013 dated 8.5.2013, Paralakhemundi P.S. Case No. 93 of 2013 dated 25.6.2013, Kujanga P.S. Cas....
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....illegally diverted to her personal account from the accounts of AT Group of Companies without any justification which indicates that the petitioner, in criminal conspiracy with accused Pradeep Kumar Sethy, parked the said amount of Rs. 1,17,83,000/- illegally collected by AT Group of Companies in her personal account and misappropriated the same. The charge sheet further revealed that the crime committed by the petitioner and other co-accused persons is not a crime against any individual but a crime against public at large having wide ramification over the society. The innocent depositors, being allured by the accused persons, invested their money with the AT Group and ultimately lost their hard earned life time savings due to the aforesaid acts of the accused persons. The charge sheet further revealed that from the materials emerged during investigation and from the circumstances of the case, it was prima facie established that the petitioner along with the co-accused persons entered into criminal conspiracy with each other and in pursuance thereof they formed different companies, collected money from the public with dishonest and fraudulent intention by alluring them of higher....
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....r completion of 32 episodes of TV serials and the amount of Rs. 1,17,83,000/- has not been utilized/spent by the petitioner for her personal purpose but utilized for payment of the dues/wages/salaries to various persons whosoever participated for the preparation, production and completion of the two TV serials through cheques. The learned counsel further contended that the names and addresses of all the beneficiaries in respect of Rs. 1,17,83,000/- along with the bank statements were duly furnished by the petitioner to CBI officer but with malafide intention those documents were neither taken note of nor were cited as documents in the charge sheet. It is further contended that the petitioner was neither the Director of AT Group of companies nor an agent nor a promoter/motivator nor she had played any role with regard to collection of any amount from the public by any of the AT Group of Companies. The learned counsel for the petitioner further contended that the petitioner is in custody since 10.10.2014 and in the meantime co-accused persons namely Ranjan Kumar Das and Pravat Kumar Tripathy who were also charge sheeted by the CBI have been released on bail by this Court in applic....
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....ner is enlarged on bail, it would affect such further investigation. The learned counsel further contended that the co-accused persons who have been granted bail stand in different footings and the role of the petitioner is at par with the main accused. It is further contended by the learned counsel for the CBI that the petitioner is not a resident of State of Orissa and once she is released on bail, it would be difficult to secure her attendance. The learned counsel further contended that during interrogation the petitioner was specifically asked to produce the books of accounts relating to the expenditure made for the production of two TV serials but she has failed to produce the same. It is further contended that the money was transferred by the main accused Pradeep Kumar Sethy to the personal account of the petitioner out of which she had given Rs. 20 lakhs to her sister. It is further contended that no agreement between the petitioner and the main accused for production of the two TV serials was produced before the CBI authorities even though specifically asked for to the petitioner. The learned Special Public Prosecutor further contended that such agreement was ordinarily exp....
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....rounds as considerations which prevailed with the Court of Session in taking the view which it did. In case of Twinkle Soni alias Rakesh Kumar Verma and Bablu Yadav Vs. The State of Jharkhand 2010 Criminal Law Journal 2213, where the matter was referred to a larger Bench to decide as to whether for filing a bail application before the High Court, is it necessary for the petitioner to move before the trial court for his bail again when his bail application was rejected earlier by the Hon'ble Court, a Division Bench of Jharkhand High Court held as follows:- "5. In view of the aforesaid decisions and looking to the provisions of Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is an option given to the petitioners, whether they want to approach the Sessions Court or to the High Court. Both the Courts have concurrent jurisdiction. When previously bail application is rejected by both the Courts i.e. by the Sessions Court as well as by this Court and if successive bail application is to be preferred second time or subsequent and if they approach directly the High Court, it cannot be held that such type of application is not tenable at law. On the contrary, it is tenable ....
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....ption to withdraw the bail application from the High Court to move the Court of Sessions again but if he/she chooses not to do the same and to pursue the bail application pending before the High Court, it is to be decided on its own merits and during the hearing of the bail application, High Court can take note of the factum of submission of charge sheet and the materials which has come against the applicant in the chargesheet. It is a question of somebody's liberty which also touches the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. If a person in custody approaching the High Court for bail against the rejection order of the Court of Session during course of investigation is denied of his valuable right of adjudication of the bail on merit only on the ground of submission of charge sheet at the time of consideration of the bail application and is asked to approach the Court of Session again then certainly it would be a travesty of justice. There cannot be any rationale to show the door of Court of Session again to the applicant. Therefore, I am of the view that this bail application is maintainable. 6. Law is well settled that detailed examina....
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....ended on the factual matrix of the matter". In the case of Prahalad Singh Bhati -v- NCT, Delhi 2001 Supreme Court Cases (Criminal) 674, it is held as follows:- "8.....While granting the bail, the court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, the nature of evidence in support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character, behaviour, means and standing of the accused, circumstances which are peculiar to the accused, reasonable possibility of securing the presence of the accused at the trial, reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being tampered with, the larger interests of the public or state and similar other considerations". In the case of Sanjay Chandra -V- CBI AIR 2012 SC 830, it is held as follows:- "25.........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....
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....h an accused should also be released on bail. A Judge is not bound to grant bail to an accused on the ground of parity even where the order granting bail to an identically placed co-accused contains no cogent reasons or if the same has been passed in flagrant violation of well settled principle of law and ignores to take into consideration the relevant facts essential for granting bail. Such an order can never form the basis for a claim of parity. It will be open to the Judge to reject the bail application of the applicant before him as no Judge is obliged to pass orders against his conscience merely to maintain consistency. The grant of bail is not a mechanical act. Merely because some of the co-accused, whom similar role has been ascribed, has been released on bail earlier and State has not moved the higher Court against the order in question for cancellation, the power of the Court cannot be fettered to act against conscience. In the case of Chandigarh Administration -v- Jagjit Singh [1995] 1 SCR 126, it is held as follows: "8...If the order in favour of the other person is found to be contrary to law or not warranted in the facts and circumstances of his case, it is....
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....e the co-accused Ranjan Kumar Das was suffering from Oral Submucous Fibrosis (OSF) which was likely to lead to cancer. The learned counsel for the petitioner further relied upon the order dated 3.3.2015 of this Court passed in BLAPL No. 26077 of 2014 in respect of co-accused Pravat Kumar Tripathy wherein after noting down the prosecution case and the contentions raised by the learned counsel for both the sides from paragraphs 3 to 7 and the citations in paragraph-8 along with the contentions raised by the respective counsels, the learned court held in paragraph-9 of the order that considering the nature of accusations as against the said co-accused and the nature of evidence in support thereof, it was found to be a fit case for admitting the petitioner to bail subject to certain conditions. Pravata Kumar Tripathy was a member of Legislative Assembly of Odisha from Banki Constituency and he stated to have used his influence during registration of "Artha Tatwa Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Ltd." and received money to the tune of Rs. 42 lakhs for patronizing the main accused Pradeep Kumar Sethy to run the illegal business. The learned counsel for the CBI on the other hand pr....
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....e been assigned for grant of bail and case of co-accused Ashok Mohanty is completely different and all of them stand in different footings and therefore the orders passed in respect of co-accused Ashok Mohanty, Ranjan Kumar Das and Pravat Kumar Tripathy cannot be taken as parity for considering the bail application of the petitioner. A judgment of the Court is only an authority for what it actually decides and not every observation found therein nor what logically follows from it and judgment of the Court is not to be read mechanically as a Euclid's Theorem nor as if it was a statute. What is of the essence in a decision is its ratio. The ratio of any decision must be understood in the background of the facts of that case. A little difference in facts or additional facts may make a lot of difference in the precedential value of a decision. In Padmasundara Rao -v- State of Tamilnadu AIR 2002 SC 1334, the Supreme Court had held as under: "8A. There is always a peril in treating the words of judgment as though they are words in a legislative enactment and it is to be remembered that judicial utterances are made in setting of the facts of a particular case. Circumsta....
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.... raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the amount was transferred by Pradeep Kumar Sethy to the company accounts of Prism Heights also not found to be prima facie correct in view of the statement of C.W.5 Reetish Nandan Padhy as well as the documentary evidence produced by the learned counsel for the CBI. Similarly there is no material to indicate that from the company account of Prism Heights, payments were made to different artists, writer, director, cameraman etc. of the two tele serials. The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner had produced all the documents before the CBI authorities during course of her interrogation in support of the expenditure for the two tele serials has been denied by the learned counsel for the CBI. When it is the stand of the petitioner that on each date of interrogation she was accompanied by her Advocate Sri A.K. Singh to the CBI office at Bhubaneswar, it is not understood as to how she failed to obtain any receipt from the CBI authorities in token of the receipt of such valuable documents. There is no seizure list of any such documents. The charge sheet also does not indicate about the production o....
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....s magnitude is going on for years unnoticed and unchecked, is suggestive of a deep-rooted apathy if not criminal neglect on the part of the regulators who ought to do everything necessary to prevent such fraud and public loot. Depending upon whether the investigation reveals any criminal conspiracy among those promoting the companies that flourished at the cost of the common man and those who were supposed to prevent such fraud calls for a comprehensive investigation not only to bring those who were responsible to book but also to prevent recurrence of such scams in future. xx xx xx 28. An affidavit has been filed by the State of Odisha pursuant to the said directions in which the FIRs where the State Investigating Agency is examining the larger conspiracy angle, have been identified....... Larger conspiracy angle is according to the affidavit being examined in three cases. These are: xx xx xx (ii) Case No. 44 dated 7.2.2013 under the same provisions registered in Kharvelnagar Police Station (Bhubaneswar Urban Police District) against M/s. Artha Tatwa Group of Companies and xx xx xx 30. The factual narrative given in the foregoi....
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....State Police Agency to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). xx xx xx B. State of Odisha: All cases registered against 44 companies mentioned in our order dated 26th March, 2014 passed in Writ Petition (C) No. 413 of 2013. The CBI is also permitted to conduct further investigations into all such cases in which charge sheets have already been filed." 10. There is no dispute that the case relates to commission of economic offences. In the case of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy -v- CBI (2013) 55 Orissa Criminal Report (SC) 825, it is held as follows:- "15. Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country. 16. While granting bail, the Court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, the nature of evidence in support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character of the ac....
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....h death or imprisonment for life shall not be applicable if such person is under the age of 16 years or is a woman or is sick or infirm, subject to such conditions as may be imposed. It does not, however, mean that persons specified in the first proviso to sub-section (1) of Section 437 should necessarily be released on bail. The proviso is an enabling provision which confers jurisdiction upon a Court, other than the High Court or Court of Session, to release a person on bail who has appeared or brought before the Court despite the fact that there appears reasonable ground for believing that such person has been guilty of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life. There is no gainsaying that the discretion conferred by the Code has to be exercised judicially. The overriding considerations in granting bail which are common both in Section 437(1) and 439(1) of Criminal Procedure Code are the nature and gravity of the offence, position and status of the accused with reference to the victim and the witnesses and likelihood of the accused fleeing from justice and tampering with witnesses etc. Bail is a matter of procedural privilege and not an accrued right until it is g....
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....ing whether to grant bail, both the seriousness of the charge and the severity of the punishment should be taken into consideration. In the present case, charge sheet has been submitted, inter alia, for the offence under section 409 IPC which carries punishment for life imprisonment. 13. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that liberty of a woman has been curtailed for last five months and she is languishing in jail custody. The learned Special Public Prosecutor on the other hand submitted that the cool, calculated design of some unholy combinations which includes some politicians, police officials, executives and some influential persons was the main reasons for the Chit Fund scam and if petitioner is granted liberty by way of release from jail custody, the on-going investigations is likely to be hampered. Liberty means responsibility. Liberty is not folly, vice and madness for earning money by unethical means without restraint. Liberty may be at risk if one abuses liberty. In case of Neeru Yadav -v- State of U.P. 2014 (14) SCALE 59, it is held as follows:- "16.......We are not oblivious of the fact that liberty is a priceless treasure for a human be....
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....on of the learned counsel for the petitioner that she was neither the Director of AT Group of Companies nor connected in the alleged Chit-Fund Scam prima facie appears to be not correct as the materials on record indicate that the petitioner was frequently visiting Bhubaneswar to attend the meetings of the Directors of AT Group of Companies. There was money trailing from the accounts of AT Group of Companies to the personal account of the petitioner to the tune of Rs. 1,17,83,000/- from out of which she has given huge amount to her sister and brother-in-law. The contentions that the amount transferred from the accounts of AT Group of Companies to the account of the petitioner were utilized by Prism Heights Company for the payment of artists, directors, cameraman, staff etc. in the production of tele serials is not borne out of the charge sheet and there is also no documentary evidence in support of such contentions. The further contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that names and addresses of the beneficiaries in respect of Rs. 1,17,83,000/- along with bank statements were furnished to the CBI officials is also not borne out of the record. No agreement between Pradee....