Varun Chaturvedi vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh
2022 Latest Caselaw 7818 MP

                                    1
             IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH
                          AT JABALPUR
                                 BEFORE
                   HON'BLE SMT. JUSTICE NANDITA DUBEY
                             ON THE 15th OF JUNE, 2022

               MISC. CRIMINAL CASE No. 15007 of 2022

        Between:-
        VARUN CHATURVEDI S/O AWADH NARAYAN
        CHATURVEDI , AGED ABOUT 37 YEARS,
        OCCUPATION: DIRECTOR OSMO IT SOLUTION
        PVT.LTD. F-812,13,14 MANSAROVAR COMPLEX,
        BHOPAL,    R/O H.NO.113,    GOLDEN  CITY
        NEELBAD, BHOPAL (MADHYA PRADESH)

                                                                 .....PETITIONER
        (By Shri Amitabh Gupta, Advocate)

        AND

        THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH THROUGH
        POLICE STATION EOW BHOPAL (MADHYA
        PRADESH)

                                                              .....RESPONDENTS
        (By Shri Madhur Shukla, Advocate )

      This application coming on for hearing this day, the court passed the
following:
                                     ORDER

This is the fifth application filed by the applicant under Section 439 of the Cr.P.C. for grant of bail.

Applicant was arrested on 11.04.2019 in connection with Crime No.12/2019 registered at Economic Offences Wing, Bhopal (MP) for the offence punishable under Sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468, 471 of the IPC and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 7 read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The earlier bail applications filed by the applicant were dismissed on merit by this Court vide orders dated 25.06.2019, 14.11.2019, 17.03.2021 and 23.12.2021, passed in M.Cr.C. Nos.19432/2019, 39778/2019, 26782/2020 and 59443/2021 respectively.

As per prosecution, applicant and co-accused Vinay Choudhary, both Managing Director of OSMO Private Limited and co-accused Sumit Golwalkar, the Marketing Director of OSMO Private Limited manipulated the e-tenders floated by MPSEDC on M.P. e-Procurement Portal by using the user ID PT4 and bidder ID QK29846, which was provided to OSMO Private Limited in the year 2016 for the purpose of performance test by Antares Systems Limited.

The IP address registered while creating the said demo file was 27.60.163.98 and 27.60.185.14, which were found linked with Mobile No.9755092919. The SIM of this mobile number was registered in the name of co-accused Vinay Choudhary and was being used by applicant Varun Chaturvedi, thus the applicant in connivance with the other co-accused, manipulated the bids.

Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the applicant submits that the applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the offence. He has no role to play in the functioning of the e-Procurement Software (Portal). It is stated that OSMO in the year 2016 has left the job of performance testing and also gave the information to this effect to MPSEDC. Thereafter, there is no role of the applicant in the functioning of the e-procurement portal. Referring to the evidence of Surendra Kumar Verma (P.W.-24) and Kewal Pradhan (P.W.-

27), it is pointed out that at the relevant time and date, 135 mobile numbers were linked with the IP address 27.60.163.98 and 50 other mobile numbers were linked with IP address 27.60.185.141 at the same time the destination IP (10.125.239.166) was reportedly accessed by more than one mobile number

and there was no details in the IPDR, which could show that the destination IP was accessed by the two IP addresses allotted to the applicant, which shows that the applicant is not involved in the crime. It is submitted that applicant is in custody since 11.04.2019 and there is no likelihood of tampering with the prosecution evidence. On the strength of aforesaid submissions, it is prayed that applicant be released on bail.

Per contra, Shri Madhur Shukla, learned counsel for the respondent submits that earlier four bail applications of the present applicant were dismissed on merits. There is no change in the circumstances to take a different view from the view as taken by the co-ordinate Bench. It is alleged that applicant is one of the main accused persons of the crime, who committed manipulation in the bids and gain the huge amount from the firm which they made the lowest bidder by manipulation. It is further pointed out that e- procurement portal was tampered in 9 tendering process to provide benefits to 5 private partners. There is evidence that applicant has received huge amount of money in the account from one Sarothia Velji, who was made lowest bidder by manipulating the bids, which shows the prima facie involvement of present applicant in the crime.

Earlier applications filed by the applicant were dismissed on merits by this Court vide orders dated 25/06/2019, 14/11/2019, 17/03/2021 and

23.12.2021 passed in M.Cr.C.Nos.19432/2019, 39778/2019, 26782/2020 and 59443/2021 respectively, thereafter, there is no change in the circumstances. The co-ordinate Bench has also considered the statement of 25 witnesses recorded by the trial Court and has observed in para 13 that "all the prosecution witnesses, whose statements have been recorded by the trial Court did not turn

hostile and they have supported the prosecution story."

The bail application of co-accused Sumit Golwalkar has been dismissed as withdrawn vide order dated 22.06.2021, passed in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 4197/2021. The bail application filed by the applicant before the Apex Court was also dismissed as withdrawn vide order dated 18.06.2020 passed in Special Leave Petition (Criminal) Diary No.(s). 1546/2020. The bail application of co-accused Vinay Choudhary has been dismissed by the Apex Court with a direction to the trial Court to conclude the trial and pronounce the judgment within a period of one year from the date of receipt of certified copy of the order dated 05.05.2021, passed in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.). No. 1104/2021.

Admittedly, the statement of all the witnesses have already been recorded and the trial is at the stage of final hearing. At this stage, when the matter is listed for final arguments, this Court is not inclined to ascertain the veracity of the statements of prosecution witnesses after evaluating the statements on merits.

In the instant case, prima facie, it is revealed that Online bidding processes were rigged in favour of few private players. E-procurement portal was tampered in nine tendering processes to provide benefits to five private companies, based at Hyderabad, Mumbai, Baroda and Bhopal. There is evidence to support the stand of respondent that huge amount of money was received in the account of Shricon Multi Infra Developers, in which co-accused Vinay Choudhary and Avinash K. Choudhary are partners from the lowest bidder.

In the facts and circumstances, prima facie the involvement of present applicant in the crime cannot be ruled out. Looking to the seriousness of the

crime and on perusal of the case diary, this Court is not inclined to take a different view as taken by the co-ordinate Bench.

No ground for bail is made out. This repeat application under Section 439 of the Cr.P.C. is hereby dismissed.

(NANDITA DUBEY) JUDGE SMT. GEETHA NAIR gn 2022.06.17 17:19:09 +05'30'