Delhi High Court
Laxmi Narayan Sharma vs State Of Nct Of Delhi on 19 November, 2019
$~10
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Judgment delivered on 19.11.2019
+ BAIL APPLN. 2717/2019
LAXMI NARAYAN SHARMA ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Ravi Ranjan and Mr.
Semeer Sidhar, Advocates.
versus
STATE OF NCT OF DELHI ..... Respondent
Through Mr. G.M.Farooqui,
APP for State.
Ms. Abha Malhotra, Sr.
Counsel for U.O.I. with Hitesh
Chadha, Adv. for R-1.
SI Narender Singh PS Lahori
Gate
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE BRIJESH SETHI
JUDGMENT
BRIJESH SETHI, J.(Oral)
1. Vide this order, I shall dispose of the bail application u/s. 439
CrPC filed by the petitioner Laxmi Narayan Sharma in FIR No.
000160/2019, u/s. 379 IPC, P.S. Lahori Gate, Delhi.
2. Ld. Counsel for the petitioner has prayed for bail on the ground
that petitioner is innocent and falsely implicated. He has clean
antecedents. It is submitted that the present FIR was registered on
27.06.2019 on the complaint of one Mr. Vimal Kumar who was
working as a cashier in the shop of one Mahavir Singh against
unknown persons alleging that a bag containing some important
documents and a sum of Rs. 12 Lakhs was stolen from his room at
H.No. 4712, 3rd Floor, Cloth Market, Fatehpuri, Delhi on 20.06.2019
at around 5.00 to 7.00 a.m. As per the complaint, the petitioner was
sharing accommodation with the complainant as both of them were
working in the shop of Mahavir Singh. The petitioner was arrested by
the police on 28.07.2019 when he came to Delhi from his native place
Bikaner.
3. It is next submitted that co-accused Abhishek Singh in his
disclosure statement has disclosed that the petitioner has informed him
about the cash and accordingly they had planned to commit theft along
with co-accused Anshul Rathoor @ Monti, Rashid, Vijender @ Viju,
Vicky Panwar and Lateer. It is further submitted that after almost
one month from the date of registration of the FIR, statement of
complainant under Section 161 Cr.P.C. was recorded on 18.07.2019
wherein he made improvement and stated that when he and his friends
checked the room on 29.06.2019, an amount of Rs. 79,31,000/- was
found to be missing from a white bag kept in the room for purchase of
grains. Thus, it was ultimately alleged on 18.07.2019 that a total
amount of Rs. 91,31,000/0- was stolen. The name of the petitioner
had appeared there for the first time.
4. It is next submitted that in the charge-sheet, it is alleged by the
police that it has recovered an amount of Rs. 21,500/- from the co-
accused Abhishek Singh out of the entire stolen amount of Rs.
91,31,000/-. Police, in fact, has concocted a story that huge cash
amount was kept by Mr. Mahavir Singh to purchase the grains even in
complete violation of the finance Bill, 2017 which prohibits cash
transaction of more than 2 Lakhs. The police has acted as henchmen
of Mr. Mahavir Singh during the entire investigation and arrested
several persons including the petitioner and extorted money from them
on the pretext of investigation of the present case. It is further
submitted that in daily newspaper of Bikaner, Rajasthan dated
02.07.2019 and 03.07.2019, a news was flashed that the policemen of
Delhi Police posted with PS Lahori Gate, Delhi were involved in
unlawful extortion from the youths of Churu on the pretext of
investigation of the E-FIR No. 000160/2019. The additional
Superintendent of Police, Anti Corruption Bureau, Churu had formed
a team and arrested the policemen of Delhi Police and later on they
were admitted to bail by the High Court of Rajasthan at Jodhpur on
08.08.2019.
5. It is next submitted that bail application of the petitioner was
dismissed by the Ld. MM, Tis Hazari Courts vide order dated
23.08.2019 in the most unlawful manner and by wrongful observing
that the allegations made in the FIR were so grave. Aggrieved by the
impugned order of Ld. MM, petitioner filed a bail application before
the Ld. ASJ, Tis Hazari but Ld. ASJ ignored all the facts of illegal
extortion by the police and dismissed the bail application on
15.10.2019 in the most mechanical manner and without application of
judicial mind.
6. It is lastly submitted that petitioner is a poor man and has
nothing to do with the alleged offence. Petitioner is languishing in jail
since 28.07.2019 even when the investigation of the case qua him is
over and the charge-sheet has been filed. It is, therefore, prayed that
petitioner be released on bail, in the interest of justice.
7. Ld. APP for the state has opposed the bail application on the
ground that allegations against the petitioner are serious in nature.
Petitioner is involved in the offence of theft of Rs. 91,31,000/- along
with other co-accused persons. He has, therefore prayed for dismissal
of the bail application. It is further submitted that investigation of the
present case was assigned to investigating officer on 07.07.2019 and
he had, thereafter, recorded the statement of informant on 18.07.2019.
8. I have considered the rival submissions. As per prosecution
version, the present case vide E-FIR no 000160/2019, u/s 379 IPC was
registered online on the complaint of Vimal Kumar s/o Mangi Lal, R/o
4712, 3rd floor, Cloth Market, Fatehpuri Delhi with the allegations of
theft of Rs. 12 lacs. During investigation detailed statement of
complainant under Section 161 Cr.P.C. was recorded in which he has
stated that he is working as a cashier in Inderpuri Courier Company at
320, 2nd Floor, Kucha Ghashi Ram, Delhi. On 19.06.2019, he had put
a parcel of Rs. 12 lac in his room and the next day he found that the
same has been stolen from there and he got the online FIR lodged but
subsequently on checking he came to know that Rs. 79,31,000/-
(Rupees Seventy Nine Lac Thirty One Thousand) which were kept to
purchase grains have also been stolen. Thus, a total of Rs. 91,31,000/-
(Ninety One Lac Thirty One Thousand) was got stolen. The
complainant further alleged that one person Laxmi Narayan
@Leeladhar S/o Parmeshwar R/o Vill-Hemasar, Tehsil-Dungar Garh,
Distt. Bikaner who was working there and was living with them has
committed the said theft. Accordingly, the offence under Section 379
IPC was converted into 380 IPC. During investigation, the owner of
the courier company Sh. Mahaveer Singh provided the legitimate
source i.e. bills/invoices of the alleged stolen money. During
investigation, the CCTV footage of the area were checked and some
of the suspects were shortlisted and their photographs were developed,
the DVR containing the CCTV footage was taken into police
possession and sent to FSL for expert opinion. It is further the case of
the prosecution that during investigation accused Abhishek Singh S/o
Jitender Singh, R/o Village Jasraspur, PS Ratan Nagar, District
Churu, Rajasthan was arrested from Jaipur on 27.07.2019 and
disclosed that Laxmi Narayan @ Leeladhar (petitioner) had informed
them about the cash and they had committed theft of an amount of
around 91 Lacs along with the co-accused Anshul Rathor @ Monti,
Rashid, Vijender @ Viju, Vicky Panwar & Lateef and later on divided
the amount amongst them. During investigation, one witness Bansi
Lal Sharma @ Lal Chand stated that he was there in the room on
20.06.2019 around 5.45 am where 5-6 persons had come along with
Laxmi Narayan @ Leeladhar and Leeladhar had introduced them as
his relatives but soon thereafter when he had come from the
washroom, all those people had disappeared and Vimal, the cashier
informed him that the cash has been stolen. During investigation
efforts were made to recover the case property but the same could not
be recovered due to non-cooperation of the petitioner.
9. It is a settled law that while granting bail, the court has to
keep in mind the nature of accusation, the nature of evidence in
support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction
will entail, the character of the accused, the circumstances which
are peculiar to the accused, his role and involvement in the offence,
his involvement in other cases and reasonable apprehension of the
witnesses being tampered with. In view of the fact that other co-
accused persons namely Anshul Rathor @ Monti s/o Laxman
Singh @ Lal Sinhgh, Rashid Khan S/o Ummed Khan, Vijender @
Viju S/o Deendayal, Vicky Panwar @ Samsher, Lareef and Fariyad
Khan S/o Mohmood Khan Dilawarkhan are absconding and
proceedings under Section 82 Cr.P.C. against them have been
initiated and out of the stolen amount, only Rs. 21,500/- have been
recovered so far and the remaining amount is yet to be recovered,
no grounds for grant of bail to the petitioner are made out at this
stage. The bail application is, therefore, dismissed and stands
disposed of accordingly.
BRIJESH SETHI, J
NOVEMBER 19, 2019
(AK)
