TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (9) TMI 1867
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....ons 276(c), 277, 278,278E of IT Act read with Section 120-B, 190,191,199,200,204 IPC for the alleged collection of kickbacks through an organized syndicate. (ii) ECIR/RPZO/11/2022 ("ECIR 11") was registered by ED in Preventionof Money Laundering Act (PMLA Act) on 18.11.2022 on the basis of Section 120-B in the aforesaid IT complaint. The applicant was arrested on 11.05.2023 and the prosecution complaint was filed on 04.07.2023 against seven accused persons including the applicant. (iii) The ED had sent a letter dated 11.07.2023 under Section 66(2) of the PMLA to the ACB, Chhattisgarh disclosing that the investigation in ECIR 11 had allegedly disclosed generation of INR 2161 Crore proceeds of the crime. Pertinently, the applicant was not named therein. It is further alleged that the applicant is involved in collecting illegal commission charged from the liquor suppliers for sale of liquor and also in sale of off-the record unaccounted illicit country liquor from State run shops. On the basis of this letter, the present FIR No. 04/2024 was registered by ACB Chhattisgarh on 17.01.2024. (iv) On 08.04.2024, the Hon'ble Supreme Court quashed the prosecution com....
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.... secure their attendance at the trial but in such cases, "necessity" is the operative test. In this country, it would be quite contrary to the concept of personal liberty enshrined in the Constitution that any person should be punished in respect of any matter, upon which, he has not been convicted or that in any circumstances, he should be deprived of his liberty upon only the belief that he will tamper with the witnesses if left at liberty, save in the most extraordinary circumstances. 23. Apart from the question of prevention being the object of refusal of bail, one must not lose sight of the fact that any imprisonment before conviction has a substantial punitive content and it would be improper for any court to refuse bail as a mark of disapproval of former conduct whether the accused has been convicted for it or not or to refuse bail to an unconvicted person for the purpose of giving him a taste of imprisonment as a lesson. 24. In the instant case, we have already noticed that the "pointing finger of accusation" against the appellants is "the seriousness of the charge". The offences alleged are economic offences which have resulted in loss to the State excheq....
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....the range of about 50,000 pages, the likelihood of the trial being concluded in near future is impossible. 12. Relying on the various pronouncements of this Court, we had observed in the case of Manish Sisodia (supra) that the prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become punishment without trial." (iii) Charges cannot be framed at this stage as further investigation remains pending. Further the first Charge sheet itself has over 295 prosecution witnesses and 146 documents running into thousands of pages. Thus, there is no likelihood of completion of trial in the near future. 4. It is further contended that even after the grant of bail to the applicant in ECIR 11, he did not abscond and cooperated with the investigation. There is no material to allege any reasonable apprehension that the applicant may be a flight risk or tamper with the evidence. On merits, it is the prosecution case that the applicant conspired with the illegal liquor syndicate and received commissions on behalf of co-accused Anwar Dhebar which is not supported by any credible evidence. 5. Further contention of the counsels for the applican....
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....his Court vide order dated 15.02.2024 in M.Cr.C. No. 60/2024 and the other co-accused has been protected by the High Court in Cr.M.P. No.721/2024 vide order dated 01.04.2024 therefore the present applicant may be released on bail. 9. Per contra, learned Sr. Counsel, Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani on behalf of the State opposing the submissions of the learned Senior Counsel for the applicant submits that a criminal syndicate comprising of high level State Government officials, private persons and political executives of the State Government were operating in the State of Chhattisgarh and the accused/applicant and three others were the main conspirators of this syndicate along with Anil Tuteja, Anwar Dhebar and Others. It is further contended that this syndicate collected illegal money in three different ways which is as follows: Part A- illegal commission charged from liquor supplier for official sale of liquor in the State of Chhattisgarh. Part B - Sale of unaccounted illicit countrymade 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 Comm....
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....f rice etc. During investigation, it was revealed that the money which came into the account of Trilok Singh Dhillon's firm was to be used by the people of the syndicate. From the statements given by the rice millers namely Jugal Kishor Paliwal, Manish Kedia, Harsh Goyal, Manoj Agarwal, Rajendra Agrawal, Sachin Agrawal and Santosh Agrawal confirm that they supplied rice to Dhillon's companies on the instructions of the Syndicate and then this rice was further sold by the companies of the present applicant to distilleries by over invoicing. Reliance has been placed in the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of State of UP Vs. Amarmani Tripathi (2005) 8SCC 21 in paras 16 to 19 and 21 wherein certain factors have been enunciated to be considered while granting bail. Reliance is next placed on Dolat Ram and others vs. State of Haryana 1995 (1) SCC 349, wherein the distinction between the factors relevant for rejecting bail in a non-bailable case and cancellation of bail already granted, was brought out : "4. 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 differe....
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....anger, of course, of justice being thwarted by grant of bail (see Prahlad Singh Bhati vs. NCT, Delhi 2001 (4) SCC 280 and Gurcharan Singh vs. State (Delhi Administration) AIR 1978 SC 179). While a vague allegation that accused may tamper with the evidence or witnesses may not be a ground to refuse bail, if the accused is of such character that his mere presence at large would intimidate the witnesses or if there is material to show that he will use his liberty to subvert justice or tamper with the evidence, then bail will be refused. We may also refer to the following principles relating to grant or refusal of bail stated in Kalyan Chandra Sarkar vs. Rajesh Ranjan, 2004 (7) SCC 528: "11. The law in regard to grant or refusal of bail is very well settled. The court granting bail should exercise its discretion in a judicious manner and not as a matter of course. Though at the stage of granting bail a detailed examination of evidence and elaborate documentation of the merit of the case need not be undertaken, 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 ....
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....n witnesses, threatening the family members of the deceased victim and also create problems of law and order situation." 21. Therefore,the general rule that this Court will not ordinarily interefere in maters relating to bail, is subject to exceptions where there are special circumstances and when the basic requirements for grant of bail are completely ignored by the High Court. " 13. Further reliance has been placed in the matter of Gulabrao Babukar Deokar Vs. State of Maharastra (2013) 16 SCC 190, it has been held that : "28. In the instant case, the attempts made by the appellant to pressurize the witnesses and even the investigating officer are clearly placed on record through the affidavit of the Deputy S.P. Mr. Pawar. On that ground also it could be said that the appellant will be pressurizing the witnesses if he is not restrained. This being the position, we cannot find any fault with the order of the High Court cancelling the bail on 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 conside....
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....rom an (2012) 9 SCC 446 (2013) 16 SCC 797 (2014) 16 SCC 508 (2017) 5 SCC 406 (2018) 10 SCC 516 assessment of an application for the cancellation of bail. The correctness of an order granting bail is tested on the anvil of whether there was an improper or arbitrary exercise of the discretion in the grant of bail. The test is whether the order granting bail is perverse, illegal or unjustified. On the other hand, an application for cancellation of bail is generally examined on the anvil of the existence of supervening circumstances or violations of the conditions of bail by a person to whom bail has been granted. In Neeru Yadav v State of Uttar Pradesh,12 the accused was granted bail by the High Court. In an appeal against the order of the High Court, a two judge Bench of this Court surveyed the precedent on the principles that guide the grant of bail. Justice Dipak Misra (as the learned Chief Justice then was) held: "12....It is well settled in law that cancellation of bail after it is granted because the accused has misconducted himself or of some supervening circumstances warranting such cancellation have occurred is in a different compartment altogether than an order gran....
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.... the stage of bail, statements made under Section 161 Cr.P.C. can be looked into. Likewise, in the matter of Girish Sharma and others Vs. State of Chhattisgarh and Others (2018) 15 SCC 192, it is held that "the prosecution is entitled to cite accused as witness even without recourse to Section 306 IPC having regard to larger interest of justice to strengthen prosecution case against more serious accused." 15. It is contended that 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. Lastly, it has been contended that the ED is investigating the offence committed by the applicant under PMLA and ACB/EOW is investigating the offences of PC Act and IPC. Both the offences are separate and distinct from each other and the jurisdiction of both the agencies are different and independent. The period spent in jail for one offence cannot be counted for other offences and for the above reason, the bail application filed by the present applicant ought to be rejected. 16. I have heard learned Senior counsels for the parties and perused the documents available on record with ut....
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....ter justice in an even-handed manner without fear of criticism from the quarters which view white collar crimes with a permissive eye unmindful of the damage done to the national economy and national interest........" 19. In State of Maharashtra through CBI, Anti Corruption Branch, Mumbai v. Balakrishna Dattatreya Kumbhar,(2012) 12 SCC 384, the Supreme Court has held that corruption is violation of human right and observed as under:- "Corruption is not only a punishable offence butalso undermines human rights, indirectly violating them, and systematic corruption, is a human rights' violation in itself, as it leads to systematic economic crimes." 20. Further, in the matter of Nimmagadda Prasad v. Central Bureau of Investigation, (2013) 7 SCC 466, the Supreme Court has held that economic offence is a grave offence affecting the economy of the country as a whole and observed as under:- "23. Unfortunately, in the last few years, the country has been seeing an alarming rise in white-collar crimes, which has affected the fibre of the country's economic structure. Incontrovertibly, economic offences have serious repercussions on the development of the country as a ....
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....in their statement before the police and statement recorded under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C. that they were involved in the syndicate crime but they are listed as prosecution witnesses without being granted pardon by the competent court. Prima facie it appears that the prosecution has adopted an inconsistent stance being both hot and cold in its approach and has acted in a pick and choose manner in investigation. However, Shri Jethmalani, learned Senior Counsel contended that the prosecution agency has no time to make those persons accused as the investigation is still going on. He further contended that 3-4 charge sheets are yet to be filed and this is merely a preliminary charge sheet even though there is no such provision as "preliminary charge sheet" in Cr.P.C. The law provides that after completion of investigation, report shall be forwarded to the Magistrate, who is empowered to take cognizance of the offence based on a police report as provided under Section 173(2) of the Cr.P.C. and the police has a right to further investigate the matter and shall forward further report/reports to the Magistrate in the form prescribed. Be that as it may, the applicant cannot take adavantag....