TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2004 (10) TMI 650
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....r anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were rejected by the Sessions Court on 27.11.2002. Upon their filing similar applications in this Court, by order dated 7.2.2003, assurance and undertakings of the petitioners to repay the amounts due to the complainant bank, then running into Rs. 55 crores, were recorded, and the applications were allowed without entering into the merits of the prima facie case appearing against the petitioners. The petitioners having failed to abide by the undertakings, the subsequent bail applications of the petitioners were rejected as withdrawn. 1.1 Thereafter, the present applications were presented, one of them through jail, the petitioner initially appeared as party-in-person and, again, they offered to repay the entire amount due to the complainant bank by surrendering and offering for sale the immovable properties under their control, the market value of which was stated to be exceeding Rs. 100 crores. By a detailed order dated 25.7.2003, a broad consensus for grant of immediate prayer for interim conditional bail was recorded upon an agreed formula for the earliest possible realization of money for the bank, in pu....
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....for the complainant bank, the petitioners were admitted to temporary bail, subject to conditions and clarifications, by the order dated 13.2.2004. The hearing of the applications was adjourned to 15.6.2004 as suggested by the learned counsel for allowing to the parties sufficient time for working of the arrangement that was arrived at under the auspices of the Government. The hearing was adjourned, by joint request of the parties, from time to time thereafter till 13.8.2004 on which day the learned Public Prosecutor as well as the learned counsel for the complainant bank strongly objected to the grant of bail as also extension of the earlier order granting temporary bail. The applications were heard from time to time within the limited time available to the Court and, on 27.8.2004, the order not extending the temporary bail was made. Even thereafter, the hearing continued intermittently and the petitioners were treated as in judicial custody on condition of remaining personally present in the Court. On 24.9.2004, even after conclusion of the arguments, the last deal under the auspices of the government having admittedly failed, a fresh proposal for repayment to the bank was made on....
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....I.R. that the Board of Directors and the officers of the Bank were in control of the funds of the bank and it was, prima facie, disposed and dealt with in a way that no prudent banker would do even in absence of clear guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India and other banking regulations. The result has been a special audit, closure of the bank's operations and loss of crores of rupees for the bank at least for the present. The F.I.R. lodged after audit of transactions of the complainant bank clearly alleges, with details of the modus operandi, deception, breach of trust and forgery in the matter of granting huge loans to accused Nos. 13 to 16. The minimum requirement of securing the debt by proper documentation have not only been overlooked, but by overwriting the figures, even larger loans than applied for were sanctioned, temporary advances to the tune of about 11 crores of rupees were given and bank guarantees to the tune of 9.96 crores of rupees were also provided for the benefit of a particular group of borrowers comprising of accused Nos. 13 to 16...." The accused Nos. 13 to 16 referred hereinabove are the borrowers, including the petitioners and their company, loans t....
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....to it and, therefore, having not derived any benefit from the alleged offences and having no criminal record, he should be released on bail. 4.1 The learned senior advocates appearing for the petitioners relied upon several judgments in support of their submissions. The judgment of the Supreme Court in SHRI GURBAKSH SINGH SIBBIA AND ORS. v. STATE OF PUNJAB was relied upon for the proposition that the object of bail was to secure the attendance of the accused at the trial and bail ought not to be refused or withheld for punishment. It is, however, also observed in that judgment that: "....the question whether to grant bail or not depends for its answer upon a variety of circumstances, the cumulative effect of which must enter into the judicial verdict. Any one single circumstance cannot be treated as of universal validity or as necessarily justifying the grant or refusal of bail." The judgment of this Court in BHAGIRATHSINGH JADEJA v. STATE OF GUJARAT was relied upon for the proposition that the approach of the Court in the matter of bail is not that the accused should be detained by way of punishment. The material consideration is whether the accused would be readily available f....
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....ts within 15 days of the application. Thereafter, the Overdraft account was opened without undergoing the necessary formalities and under the facility extended and availed, a sum of Rs. 7 crores was transferred from the Overdraft A/c No. 11 to the other accounts operated by the petitioners. Out of the loan amounts sanctioned by the bank in favour of AEPL, a sum of Rs. 6,16,51,000/- appeared to have been paid by a pay order dated 23.2.2001 to the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) towards the cost of land which the petitioners' company intended to take on lease. And, a bank guarantee of Rs. 9.36 crores also appeared to have been issued by the bank in December, 2000 in favour of the GIDC. All these financial transactions appeared to be in furtherance of a project for which AEPL had requested for allotment of land admeasuring 6 lakh sq. mtrs. on 1.5.2000 and obtained possession on 2.5.2000, whereas the lease deed was signed on 15.2.2001. Permission to mortgage such leasehold land was conveyed by letter dated 14.7.2000. A few very important words to facilitate the grant of loan appeared to have been added to the typed text by hand in the said letter dated 14.7.2000 o....
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....28.11.2002 of the Commissioner of Police, Surat, the market value of the lease hold land allotted to AEPL was Rs. 675/- per sq. mtr. whereas the GIDC had given away the land to AEPL at the rate of Rs. 205.50 per sq. mtr. It was submitted that upon the bank being taken into liquidation, the depositors may get relief through the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation, but the accused persons causing so much loss to so many people could not be released on bail. Serious apprehensions of interference with the course of justice in the civil and criminal cases pending against the petitioners were expressed on behalf of the respondents. The argument that the petitioner in Cri. Misc. Application No. 5302 of 2003 that he had resigned from the directorship of the company could not stand scrutiny in view of his signature in the undated application for loan. 6.1 The learned Public Prosecutor relied upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in RAM NARAIN POPLY v. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION and the following pertinent observation made therein: "The cause of the community deserves better treatment at the hands of the court in the discharge of its judicial functions. The c....
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....or co-ordination of the attempts at smooth recovery, was represented by an advocate. The advocate so allowed to appear for the bank even submitted that the investigation of the offences was faulty and incomplete and urged the Court to order fresh and further investigation by a special team; as though the case of the prosecution was weak and somewhat vacuous as it stood and much more evidence was required to be unearthed. 8. It is clear from the above discussion of facts and contentions that a prima facie case of siphoning of huge amounts of money from the complainant bank in the garb of loans is established against the accused persons and such systematic commission of the alleged offences was impossible without conspiracy and common intention and concerted efforts of the persons involved. There is also no doubt about the petitioners having wielded so much influence before and after the commission of the alleged offences that not only huge funds were made available to him, but the Government agencies had, after allotment of a vast area of land for the so-called housing project for the lower-income-group workmen, agreed to the conditions of the monies being realised and recovered ....