TaxTMI 
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2025 (1) TMI 10
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....State government officials, private persons and political executives of the State government was operating in the State of Chhattisgarh by collecting illegal bribes and controlling the high level management of important State Departments and State Public Sector undertakings. The sale of liquor in the State of Chhattisgarh was one of the major sources of illegal earning of the syndicate in which the applicant along with co-accused Anil Tuteja, Arunpati Tripathi, MD CSMCL and other associates ie. Vikas Agrawal @ Subbu, Arvind Singh, Sanjay Diwan and Distillers, Excise Officials were the main actors of the syndicate. The syndicate used to collect illegal money in three different ways from the sale of liquor in the State of Chhattisgarh : I. Part-A : Illegal commission charged from the liquor suppliers on the accounted sale of liquor in Chhattisgarh. ii. Part-B Sale of off-the-record unaccounted country liquor (popular in Chhattisgarh) from State run shops. This was done with the active involvement of distillers, Hologram manufacturers, bottle makers, transporters, man power management and district excise officials. III. Part-C Annual commission paid to allow distillers to operat....
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....tion so far as any coercive step is concerned and submits that he has already joined the investigation. No coercive steps be taken against the petitioner(s) till the next date" 5. On 02.05.2023, the applicant filed a writ petition (W.P. No. 208 of 2023) before the Apex Court seeking quashment of the ECIR 11 and on 06.05.2023, despite of the aforesaid protection granted to the co-accused persons, the ED had illegally arrested the applicant. 6. Pursuant to the arrest of the applicant, he was remanded to the ED custody from time to time and subsequently was remanded to judicial custody. During this period, the officers of the ED were apprised that the applicant is suffering from various ailments, in support of which, relevant documents have also been annexed. Thereafter on 16.05.2023, Hon'ble Supreme Court was pleased to grant protection from any coercive action to the wife of the applicant in relation to ECIR 11 (Annexure A/4). On 21.05.2023, the ED, illegally investigated without any jurisdiction and issued a provisional attachment order No.03/2023 followed by an Original Complaint No. 2001/2023 seeking confirmation of the Provisional Attachment Order No. 03/2023. From perusal o....
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.... by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. 8. Thereafter application was filed on behalf of the applicant on 19.10.2023 and the Hon'ble Supreme Court has ordered that the dismissal of regular bail application of the applicant and the issuance of NBW was completely untenable in law and therefore the interim bail granted to the applicant would continue and the order issuing NBW is stayed. On 17.01.2024, FIR No. 04.2024 was registered by the ACB, Chhatisgarh under Sections 420,467,468,471 and 120-B IPC read with Sections 7 & 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against the applicant. The applicant preferred an application bearing No. 26705/2024 in WP (Crl.) No. 208/2023 seeking protection on 01.02.2024. During the pendency of this application before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the respondent conducted search and seizure proceedings in the premises of the applicant and vide order dated 01.04.2024, notice was issued and interim protection from any coercive action against the two co-accused persons in Cr.M.P. No. 721 of 2024 (Anil Tuteja & Another Vs. Union of India and Others). On 03.04.2024, the applicant filed a writ petition seeking quashing of FIR against him vide Cr.M.P. No. 4510/2024 ....
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....by the Medical Board of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Raipur Chhattisgarh. It was opined by the Medical Superintendent of AIIMS on 10th September 2024 that there is no evidence of medical condition as mentioned in the impugned order and has recorded that the condition of the respondent is stable with no significant ailments. The bail granted on medical grounds cannot be sustained. However, the case of the respondent for grant of bail on merits will have to be considered. Accordingly, the impugned order dated 14.06.2024 was set aside and restored the petition bearing M.Cr.C. No. 3455 of 2024 to the file of the High Court. Hence, the applicant has filed the bail application before this Court. 11. Shri Khurana, learned counsel for the applicant submits that total three cases have been registered against the applicant in relation to the same alleged liquor scam making the same allegations. The period of incarceration suffered by the applicant in relation to the offence as on date is as follows: Sl. No. Case Period of custody/status 1. ECIR/RPZO/04/2024 Dated 11.04.2024 6 days of ED custody and 128 days of judicial custody 2. FIR No. 1196/2023 dated 30.07.202....
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....nds of pages of documents and over a lakh pages of digitized documents. It is thus clear that there is not even the remotest possibility of the trial being concluded in the near future. In our view, keeping the appellant behind the bars for an unlimited period of time in the hope of speedy completion of trial would deprive his fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. As observed time and again, the prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become punishment without trial. 14. He has further placed his reliance in the matter of Bibhav Kumar Vs. State (NCT of Delhi) 2024 SC OnLine SC 2646, wherein the bail was granted inter alia on the ground that he has been in custody for 100 days. It further reads as under: "4. It is not a matter of dispute that the investigation is complete and the charge sheet has been filed. Keeping that stage in mind, we do not deem it necessary to hear learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner or learned Additional Solicitor General of India on the point as to whether a prima facie case under Section 308 IPC is made out or not. That issue exclusively falls within the domain of ....
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....during Marriage Events; that Punit Bhargava was like his younger brother who hailed from his native place, and he had known him since childhood. That in his statement of 03.08.2023, he stated that persons including Afshar Ali used to visit him for the Cheshire Home property and that he introduced him to Rajdeep Kumar and got the property verified. That with the consent of Punit Bhargava, he got the property registered in the name of Punit Bhargava and later the property was sold to Bishnu Kumar Agarwal at a consideration of Rs. 1.78 crore. The statement, as summarized, taken as it is does not prima facie make out a case of money laundering against the appellant. It also does not point to the involvement of the appellant prima facie in the forgery." 16. It is contended that the co-accused Trilok Singh Dhillon has been granted bail by the Apex Court with effect form 15.01.2025 vide order dated 27.11.2024 in SLP No. 14697/2024. However the Apex Court has granted interim protection to the co-accused namely Yash Tuteja in SLP (Crl.) No. 11790/2024; Vidhu gupta (Hologram Manufacturer) in SLP (Crl.) No. 12517/2024; Niranjan Das (Commissioner, Excise Department) in SLP (Crl.) No. 12864/20....
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....ial for the arrested person to be aware of the grounds on which the authorized officer arrested him/her under Section 19 and the basis for the officer's 'reason to believe' that he/she is guilty of an offence punishable under the Act of 2002. It is only if the arrested person has knowledge of these facts that he/she would be in a position to plead and prove before the Special Court that there are grounds to believe that he/she is not guilty of such offence, so as to avail the relief of bail. Therefore, communication of the grounds of arrest, as mandated by Article 22 (1) of the Constitution and Section 19 of the Act of 2002, is meant to serve this higher purpose and must be given due importance. XXXX XXXX XXXX 42. That being so, there is no valid reason as to why a copy of such written grounds of arrest should not be furnished to the arrested person as a matter of course and without exception. There are two primary reasons as to why this would be the advisable course of action to be followed as a matter of principle. Firstly, in the event such grounds of arrest are orally read out to the arrested person or read by such person with nothing further and this fact is disputed i....
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....ities concerned to merely read out or permit reading of the grounds of arrest, irrespective of their length and detail, and claim due compliance with the constitutional requirement under Article 22 (1) and the statutory mandate under Section 19 (1) of the Act of 2002. 44. We may also note that the grounds of arrest recorded by the authorized officer, in terms of Section 19 (1) of the Act of 2002, would be personal to the person who is arrested and there should, ordinarily, be no risk of sensitive material being divulged therefrom, compromising the sanctity and integrity of the investigation. In the event any such sensitive material finds mention in such grounds of arrest recorded by the authorized officer, it would always be open to him to redact such sensitive portions in the document and furnish the edited copy of the grounds of arrest to the arrested person, so as to safeguard the sanctity of the investigation. 45. On the above analysis, to give true meaning and purpose to the constitutional and the statutory mandate of Section 19 (1) of the Act of 2002 of informing the arrested person of the grounds of arrest, we hold that it would be necessary, henceforth, that a copy of s....
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....mand. Mere fact that a charge sheet has been filed in the matter, would not validate the illegality and the unconstitutionality committed at the time of arresting the accused and the grant of initial police custody remand to the accused." 18. It is contended that the grounds of arrest cannot be a lip service. The reasons for arrest and grounds of arrest have been distinguished in as much as while reasons for arrest are formal in nature, the grounds of arrest would be required to contain all the details with the Investigating officer which necessitated the arrest of the accused person. Further it has been held in Prabir Purkayashta (supra) that the provisions of the statute in context to the constitutional scheme and has laid down that the grounds of arrest have to be conveyed to the accused in writing expeditiously, the said ratio becomes the law of the land binding on all the Courts in the country by virtue of Article 141 of the Constitution of India. "47. Now, coming to the aspect as to whether the grounds of arrest were actually conveyed to the appellant in writing before he was remanded to the custody of the Investigating Officer. 48. We have carefully perused the arrest m....
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....e by the ED and the State, despite the change in government, neither any change has been brought to the existing liquor policy nor any license of any hologram manufacturer/distillers/cash collection agency etc. has been cancelled. The FIR has been registered on the basis of the material collected by the ED during the course of illegal investigation carried out by it in relation to the ECIR 11. The FIR, arrest of the applicant and his subsequent remand is thus a continuation of such illegality and untenable under the law. He has placed his reliance in the matter of State of Punjab Vs. Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar (2011) 14 SCC 770. It is further submitted that the FIR has been registered on the basis of the same alleged material, making identical allegations forming part of the same alleged transaction alleging overlapping offences and the UP FIR. He has placed his reliance in the matter of T.T. Anthony Vs. State of Kerala (20010 6 SCC 181 and Upkar Singh Vs. Ved Prakash (2004) 13 SCC 292. He submits that the FIR has been registered in a completely malafide manner. The respondent and the investigating agencies are acting at the behest of the political masters and have made repeated at....
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....e considered on acceptable legal parameters. It thus confers adequate discretion on the Court to consider the enlargement on bail of which unreasonable delay is one of the grounds. Her Majesty the Queen v. Kevin Antic and Ors., 2017 SCC 27: "The right not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause is an essential element of an enlightened criminal justice system. It entrenches the effect of the presumption of innocence at the pre-trial stage of the criminal trial process and safeguards the liberty of accused persons. This right has two aspects: a person charged with an offence has the right not to be denied bail without just cause and the right to reasonable bail. Under the first aspect, a provision may not deny bail without "just cause" there is just cause to deny bail only if the denial occurs in a narrow set of circumstances, and the denial is necessary to promote the proper functioning of the bail system and is not undertaken for any purpose extraneous to that system. The second aspect, the right to reasonable bail, relates to the terms of bail, including the quantum of any monetary component and other restrictions that are imposed on the accused for the release period. ....
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....accused is released. They must not be imposed to change an accused person's behaviour or to punish an accused person. Where a bail review is requested, courts must follow the bail review process set out in R. v. St-Cloud, 2015 SCC 27, [2015] 2 S.C.R. 328." 17. We may only state that notwithstanding the special provisions in many of the countries world-over governing the consideration for enlargement on bail, courts have always interpreted them on the accepted principle of presumption of innocence and held in favour of the accused. 18. The position in India is no different. It has been the consistent stand of the courts, including this Court, that presumption of innocence, being a facet of Article 21, shall inure to the benefit of the accused. Resultantly burden is placed on the prosecution to prove the charges to the court of law. The weightage of the evidence has to be assessed on the principle of beyond reasonable doubt. XXXX XXXX XXXX 55. Section 389 of the Code concerns itself with circumstances pending appeal leading to the release of the appellant on bail. The power exercisable under Section 389 is different from that of the one either under Section 437 or under Secti....
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....fence the accused is alleged to have committed. Such consideration with regard to the gravity of offence is a factor which is in addition to the triple test or the tripod test that would be normally applied. In that regard what is also to be kept in perspective is that even if the allegation is one of grave economic offence, it is not a rule that bail should be denied in every case since there is no such bar created in the relevant enactment passed by the legislature nor does the bail jurisprudence provide so. Therefore, the underlining conclusion is that irrespective of the nature and gravity of charge, the precedent of another case alone will not be the basis for either grant or refusal of bail though it may have a bearing on principle. But ultimately the consideration will have to be on case-to-case basis on the facts involved therein and securing the presence of the accused to stand trial. 92. Sanjay Chandra v. CBI (2012) 1 SCC 40: "39. Coming back to the facts of the present case, both the courts have refused the request for grant of bail on two grounds: the primary ground is that the offence alleged against the accused persons is very serious involving deep-rooted plannin....
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....Courts tend to think that the possibility of a conviction being nearer to rarity, bail applications will have to be decided strictly, contrary to legal principles. We cannot mix up consideration of a bail application, which is not punitive in nature with that of a possible adjudication by way of trial. On the contrary, an ultimate acquittal with continued custody would be a case of grave injustice. 94. Criminal courts in general with the trial court in particular are the guardian angels of liberty. Liberty, as embedded in the Code, has to be preserved, protected, and enforced by the Criminal Courts. Any conscious failure by the Criminal Courts would constitute an affront to liberty. It is the pious duty of the Criminal Court to zealously guard and keep a consistent vision in safeguarding the constitutional values and ethos. A criminal court must uphold the constitutional thrust with responsibility mandated on them by acting akin to a high priest." 24. So far as the triple test for grant of bail is concerned, learned counsel for the applicant submits that in catena of judgments at the time of consideration of an application for bail, the court should consider three facts ie. (i) ....
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....r, which is not subject to any of those infirmities." 25. Further contention of the learned counsel for the applicant is that the applicant is not a flight risk, considering his social stand, the family and business which is entirely based in India and that the applicant has cooperated in the investigation and his statements have been duly recorded. He further contended that as per the Investigating Agency, it is a big scam with wide implication in the society but the role of each of the applicant should be seen individually. There is no substantial evidence brought on record by the respondent/Agency against the applicant showing his involvement in the manufacturing of duplicate holograms, acquiring illegal commission from the liquor suppliers for unaccounted sale of liquor or sale off the record, unaccounted illicit country made liquor. He has placed his reliance in the matter of Jalaluddin Khan Vs. Union of India, Cr.A. No. 3173/2024 before the Apex Court wherein it has been observed as under: 19. Therefore, on plain reading of the charge sheet, it is not possible to record a conclusion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against the appellant o....
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....inating material, illegal liquor bottles or duplicate holograms made from the applicant. The allegation that there is alleged scam of Rs. 1,660 crores but there is no recovery of the same by the investigating agencies. It is further contended that the applicant does not have any financial transaction with the distillers or Sanjeev Fatehpuria or Siddarth Singhania or any of the distillers against whom the allegations have been made and no financial transaction took place with the officials of the excise department. The whatsapp chats have also been denied by the learned counsel for the applicant and has stated that it is a matter of trial and therefore the applicant cannot be kept in custody. Further allegation of the Investigating Agency that the applicant is the mastermind, kingpin and brain child of the alleged scam but the prosecution has failed to produce any concrete or credible evidence to substantiate these allegations. It has been denied by the counsel for the applicant that the applicant had any close connection with any of the politicians and has not extended any benefit from them. It is contended that the applicant is not indulged in any form of corruption or illegal act....
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....of law". She too submitted that the responsibility of ensuring the presence of such persons for cross-examination was of the noticees themselves. 41. What the above submission overlooks is the "reliability" of such statements. Once it is shown that the maker of such statement has in fact resiled from it, even if it is after a period of time, then it is no longer safe to rely upon it as a substantive piece of evidence. The question is not so much as to admissibility of such statement as much as it is about its "reliability". It is the latter requirement that warrants a judicial authority to seek, as a rule of prudence, some corroboration of such retracted statement by some other reliable independent material. This is the approach adopted by the CESTAT and the Court finds it to be in consonance with the settled legal position in this regard." 58. In the present case as well, the question is not regarding the admissibility but the reliability. The statements had concretely named the applicant. However, in their subsequent retraction the reliability of the statements themselves become doubtful. Statements of Employees of SBFL, Accommodation Entry Operators (Devki Nandan Garg & Asho....
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....This alleged syndicate collected illegal money in three different ways: Part A-illegal commission charged from liquor supplier for official sale of liquor in the State of Chhattisgarh. Part B - Sale of unaccounted illicit country-made liquor from State run shops done with the involvement of distillers, hologram manufacturers, bottle makers, transporters, man power management and District Excise Officials. Part C - Annual Commission from distillers for allowing them to operate a syndicate and divide the market share amongst themselves. 31. EOW has analyzed the information and the data shared by the income tax department. On the basis of these documents and records, it is established that a well planned systematic conspiracy was executed by the syndicate to earn illegal commission in the sale and licensing of liquor in the State of Chhattisgarh. The investigation conducted by the EOW revealed that the liquor was divided into two categories namely country liquor (CL) and Indian Manufactured Foreign Liquor (IMFL). The country liquor is produced in the State of Chhattisgarh only from three distilleries ie. M/s. Chhattisgarh Distilleries Ltd., M/s. Bhatia Wines and Merchants Priva....
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.... illegal collection of money done by the syndicate. There are various digital and other evidences to demonstrate that he is one of the big beneficiaries of the syndicate. The other accused persons derived powers from him. The place of co-accused Arunpati Tripathi (ITS) as head of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Co-operation Limited (CSMCL) was made possible through the power and influence of co-accused Anil Tuteja (IAS). His posting was made at the behest of the applicant. In the investigation it has come out that the applicant though a business man, but due to his strong political links he had control over the entire set up and extorted money from the liquor manufacture. By misusing the position, with the support of the private persons, he was indulged in large scale corruption through systematic extorting and corruption via Quid-pro-quo-deals. He was main person who controlled the complete cash collection and his associates were placed at crucial places ie. providing FL 10A licenses, manpower and they collected Part A, B and C commission running into thousands of crores. They influenced the District Excise Officials and flying squad staff and shared some portion of this loot to them....
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....ed, was brought out : "Rejection of bail in a non-bailable case at the initial stage and the cancellation of bail so granted, have to be considered and dealt with on different basis. Very cogent and overwhelming circumstances are necessary for an order directing the cancellation of the bail, already granted. Generally speaking, the grounds for cancellation of bail, broadly (illustrative and not exhaustive) are: interference or attempt to interfere with the due course of administration of justice or evasion or attempt to evade the due course of justice or abuse of the concession granted to the accused in any manner. The satisfaction of the court, on the basis of material placed on the record of the possibility of the accused absconding is yet another reason justifying the cancellation of bail. However, bail once granted should not be cancelled in a mechanical manner without considering whether any supervening circumstances have rendered it no longer conducive to a fair trial to allow the accused to retain his freedom by enjoying the concession of bail during the trial." 17. They also relied on the decision in S.N. Bhattacharjee vs. State of West Bengal 2004 (11) SCC 165 where th....
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....taken, there is a need to indicate in such orders reasons for prima facie concluding why bail was being granted particularly where the accused is charged of having committed a serious offence. Any order devoid of such reasons would suffer from non-application of mind. It is also necessary for the court granting bail to consider among other circumstances, the following factors also before granting bail; they are: a. The nature of accusation and the severity of punishment in case of conviction and the nature of supporting evidence. b. Reasonable apprehension of tampering with the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant. c. Prima facie satisfaction of the court in support of the charge. (see Ram Govind Upadhyay vs. Sudarshan Singh, 2002 (3) SCC 598 and Puran vs. Ram Bilas 2001 (6) SCC 338." This Court also in specific terms held that: "the condition laid down under section 437 (1) (i) is sine qua non for granting bail even under section 439 of the Code. In the impugned order it is noticed that the High Court has given the period of incarceration already undergone by the accused and the unlikelihood of trial concluding in the near future as grounds sufficient to....
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.... that ground also. The order does record the cogent and overwhelming circumstances justifying cancellation of bail. The nature and seriousness of an economic offence and its impact on the society are always important considerations in such a case, and they must squarely be dealt with by the Court while passing an order on bail applications." 38. In another decision of the Apex Court in the matter of Mahipal Vs. Rajesh Kumar (2020) 2 SCC 118 held that it is necessary to consider relevant factors while granting bail and if those relevant facts (as enumerated in Amarmani Tripathi (supra) have not been taken into consideration while considering the application for bail, the bail is found on irrelevant considerations, indisputably the superior court can set aside the order of such a grant of bail. It has been further submitted that at the stage of bail, the statements under Section 161 Cr.P.C, can be looked into and has relied upon the judgment of the Apex Court in the matter of Indresh Kumar Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh in Criminal Appeal No. 938 of 2022. 39. He submits that the applicant, on the instructions of the syndicate, destroyed the holograms kept in his godown by burning and e....
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....dated 07.02.2023 lodged by one Pankaj Kumar Verma S/o Sh. Sarvan Kumar R/o Lotus Villa, 232 Sector-1 Jalpura Greater Noida UP alleging demand of bribe of Rs.2.30 lacs by accused Sajad Ahmed Chief Accounts Officer JKTDC through Shokat Ali for processing of payment in respect of bills submitted by the complainant, on receipt of the complaint the verification thereof was carried out by Sh. Sanjay Kumar PSI wherein demand of bribe by the accused Sajjad Ahmed from the complainant through Shokat was confirmed, pursuant to which a trap was laid and both the accused persons namely, Sajjad Ahmed Chief Accounts Officer JKTDC and Shokat Ali Lecturer Govt. Polytechnic College Jammu were caught red-handed while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs.2.30 lacs from the complainant in presence of independent witnesses and both the accused were arrested and taken into custody on 08.02.2023 after following all the legal procedure." 43. It is trite that the court while considering an application seeking bail, is not required to weigh the evidence collected by the investigating agency meticulously, nonetheless, the court should keep in mind the nature of accusation, the nature of evidence collected in ....
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....eived commission from the liquor suppliers. However, no recovery of unaccounted money has been made in this regard and as per the investigating agency, the investigation is pending, hence, a conclusive determination of their role is yet to be made. 46. It is also proved that some of the co-accused have been granted interim protection by the Apex Court and therefore on the ground that the other co-accused who were similarly situated as the applicant, have been granted bail, also cannot be accepted. It may be noted that parity is not the law. While applying the principle of parity, the Court is required to focus upon the role attached to the accused whose application is under consideration. It is axiomatic that the principle of parity is based on the guarantee of positive equality before law enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution. There are three charge sheets filed against 11 accused persons spanning into nearly 13,000 pages with over 457 witnesses, cited by the investigating agency and further investigation is going on. It is pertinent to mention here that 3-4 more charge sheets are yet to be filed according to the State counsel and it is true that the trial is unlikely to st....
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....the advancement of technology and Artificial Intelligence, the economic offences like money laundering have become a real threat to the functioning of the financial system of the country and have become a great challenge for the investigating agencies to detect and comprehend the intricate nature of transactions, as also the role of the persons involved therein. Lot of minute exercise is expected to be undertaken by the Investigating Agency to see that no innocent person is wrongly booked and that no culprit escapes from the clutches of the law. When the detention of the accused is continued by the Court, the courts are also expected to conclude the trials within a reasonable time, further ensuring the right of speedy trial guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution. 50. Earlier, the applicant had been granted bail on medical grounds vide order dated 14.06.2024. However, it has been held by the Apex Court vide order dated 29.11.2024 in SLP (Crl.0 No. 9395/2024 that : " .....the bail granted on medical grounds cannot be sustained. However, the case of the respondent for grant of regular bail on merits will have to be considered. Accordingly, we set aside the impugned order da....
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....ld be inferred that the basic jurisprudence relating to bail remains the same inasmuch as the grant of bail is the rule and refusal is the exception so as to ensure that the accused has the opportunity of securing fair trial. However, while considering the same the gravity of the offence is an aspect which is required to be kept in view by the Court. 54. While considering the grant of bail, the triple/tripod test would also be a relevant consideration. The three factors as set out in the said test are:- "(i) Whether the accused is a flight risk; (ii) Whether the accused will tamper with the evidence, if granted bail & (iii) whether the accused could influence the witnesses, if granted bail. 8. Therefore, broadly speaking (subject to any statutory restrictions contained in Special Acts), in economic offences involving the IPC or Special Acts or cases triable by Magistrates once the investigation is complete, final report/complaint filed and the triple test is satisfied then denial of bail must be the exception rather than the rule. However, this would not prevent the Court from granting bail even prior to the completion of investigation if the facts so warrant." 55. There ....