Bombay High Court
Pawankumar Basudev Agarwal And Anr vs State Of Maharashtra And Anr on 2 February, 2024
Author: Sarang V. Kotwal
Bench: Sarang V. Kotwal
2024:BHC-AS:5209
Gokhale 1 of 7 28-aba-267-24
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION NO. 267 OF 2024
1. Pawankumar Basudev Agarwal
2. Smt. Kalpana Pawankumar Agarwal
3. Shivam Pawankumar Agarwal ..Applicants
Versus
State of Maharashtra & Ors. ..Respondents
______
Mr. Ghanshyam Upadhyay (appeared through V.C.) i/b. Law Juris
for Applicants.
Ms. Mahalakshmi Ganapathy, APP for State/Respondent.
______
CORAM : SARANG V. KOTWAL, J.
DATE : 2 FEBRUARY 2024
P.C. :
1. The Applicants are seeking transit anticipatory bail in
connection with C.R.No.50 of 2021, registered at Karaya police
station, Alipore, West Bengal. It was registered on 25.02.2021,
under sections 409, 420 and 120B of the I.P.C.
2. This application is entertained by this Court pursuant
to the ratio laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of
Priya Indoria Versus State of Karnataka and others reported in
2023 SCC OnLine SC 1484. The offence is registered in West
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Bengal and, therefore, this Court has limited jurisdiction for
protecting the applicants U/s.438 of the Cr.p.c., in the interest of
justice, for a limited period. In consonance of the directions and
the guidelines laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case
of Priya Indoria (supra) , I had issued notice to the concerned
Public Prosecutor and the investigating officer at West Bengal, vide
the order dated 31.01.2024. Considering the urgency, the matter
was directed to be listed today. Learned counsel for the applicant
has filed affidavit of service.
3. Learned APP of this Court makes a statement that,
their office has not received any information from their counter
part in West Bengal. Therefore, I have considered grant of relief of
transit anticipatory bail for a limited period to enable the
applicants to approach a competent court in West Bengal to seek
the relief U/s.438 of the Cr.p.c. on certain conditions.
4. The F.I.R. which is annexed to this application shows
that the occurrence of the offence was after 07.04.2015. The
registration of the F.I.R. was on 25.02.2021. Almost three years
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have passed since registration of the F.I.R. The complainant was
one Pawan Bajaj who was authorized representative of M/s. Parag
Vinimay Pvt. Ltd. The complaint annexed to this application
mentions that the complainant company entered into series of
High Seas Sales Agreements with the accused company and
supplied goods amounting to Rs.4,95,40,000/- as per agreed terms
on good faith. The accused received all the consignments, but
finally refused to make any payment to the complainant company.
Thus the complainant company was cheated. It is alleged that the
accused company had contravened the Foreign Trade Policy, as
well, because the goods were accepted by the accused company as
an importer. On this basis the F.I.R. was lodged.
5. Learned counsel for the applicants submitted that,
there is long history of bad relations between the parties. The
applicants' company had lodged a complaint in the Metropolitan
Magistrate's Court, at Andheri vide C.C.No.363/SW/2018 against
M/s. Parag Vinimay Pvt. Ltd. (informant company in this case) and
it's Directors in respect of the alleged offence pertaining to supply
of 4000 MT lime stone. Pursuant to that complaint, an F.I.R. was
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lodged vide MECR No.11 of 2018 at Juhu police station on
03.11.2018 for the offence of cheating and forgery. In connection
with that F.I.R. the Directors of the company had obtained
anticipatory bail.
6. The same company Parag Vinimay Pvt. Ltd. has filed a
Summary Suit No.395 of 2018 before this Court on the original
side. The subject matter of that summary suit was also the supply
of lime stone and non payment by the present applicants' company.
The claim made in that summary suit was for Rs.4,92,64,742/-. In
that case, this Court on the original side had dismissed the
Summons for Judgment vide the order dated 26.11.2018 and the
applicants' company was granted unconditional leave to defend
that suit. He submitted that, in the backdrop of this history,
suppressing all these facts, the complaint was made to the Karaya
police station, West Bengal by the informant company in this case.
He submitted that, therefore, on merits the applicants have a good
case. He further added that the applicant has made out a case for
grant of transit anticipatory bail. He is aware that the applicants
will have to obtain final relief in the nature of protection U/s.438
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of the Cr.p.c. from the competent court in West Bengal having
jurisdiction of Karaya police station. He submitted that the
applicant Nos.1 and 2 are the senior citizens. The applicant No.2 is
a lady. The applicant No.1 is 67 years of age. The F.I.R. is lodged
much earlier, in the year 2021. For three long years no steps were
taken pursuant to the said F.I.R. But suddenly, in January 2024, the
applicants have received notice in connection with the said F.I.R. In
January 2024, the applicant No.2 was completely bed ridden as
she had fractured her leg. The applicant No.3 was out of the
country on that day. Therefore, considering these difficulties, it
was not possible for the applicants to immediately approach the
competent court in West Bengal. Therefore, the applicants are
seeking transit anticipatory bail from this Court.
7. Learned APP, as mentioned earlier, submitted that, she
has no instructions from their counter part in West Bengal.
8. At this stage, it would not be proper to go into the
merits of the matter because finally all these issues will have to be
considered by the competent Court in West Bengal having
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jurisdiction over Karaya police station. Today, I am considering the
immediate difficulty faced by the applicants in approaching the
competent court in West Bengal. In that context, the applicants
have made out a case for grant of relief in the nature of transit
anticipatory bail. The F.I.R. is lodged on 25.02.2021. Almost 3
years have passed. The applicants have demonstrated their
genuine difficulty in approaching that Court immediately,
therefore, some breathing time can be granted to the applicants. At
the same time, certain conditions can be imposed on the
applicants, so that, this limited liberty is not misused.
9. Before parting with this order, learned counsel for the
applicant has made a request to file additional affidavit of service
to correct certain paragraphs in the original affidavit of service.
Such additional affidavit of service shall be filed immediately.
10. Hence, the following order :
ORDER
i) In the event of his arrest in connection with
C.R.No.50 of 2021, registered at Karaya police
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station, Alipore, West Bengal, for a period of
three weeks from today, the applicants be
released on bail on their executing P. R. bonds in
the sum of Rs.50,000/- each (Rupees Fifty
Thousand each Only) with one or two sureties
each in the like amount; subject to applicants
depositing their passports with the nearest police
station from their residence i.e. Juhu police
station.
ii) This order shall be in operation for a period of
three weeks from today.
iii) Within that period of three weeks the applicants
are required to approach the competent court in
West Bengal for appropriate relief.
iv) The applicants shall produce the copy of this
order before the competent court in West Bengal.
v) The Application is disposed of.
(SARANG V. KOTWAL, J.)
