Raju @ Radheshyam vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh
2022 Latest Caselaw 3643 MP

                                              1                                 MCRC No.3685/2022



            High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur
                        Bench at Indore
           Miscellaneous Criminal Case No.3685/2022
                             (Raju @ Radheshyam S/o Ramratan
                           Age- 40 years, Occupation- Agriculture,
                            R/o- Village- Surakhedi, P.S.- Igoriya,
                                     District Ujjain (MP)
                                             Versus
                                 The State of Madhya Pradesh
                    Through Police Station Economic Offences Wing, Ujjain,
                                      District Ujjain MP)
Indore, Dated 15.03.2022
      Shri Gajendra Singh Kushwaha, learned counsel for the applicant.

      Shri Yash Tiwari, learned counsel for the respondent / State of Mad-

hya Pradesh, EOW.

They are heard. Perused the case diary / challan papers.

This is the applicant's repeat (second) application under Section 439

of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, as he is implicated in connection with

Crime No.48/2018 registered at Police Station Economic Offences Wing,

Ujjain District Ujjain (MP) for offence punishable under Sections 409, 420,

201 and 120-B/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and also under Section 6

(3) of Protection of Interest of Depositors Act, 2000. His earlier first

application Miscellaneous Criminal Case No.28692/2020 was dismissed on

merits by this Court vide order dated 22.10.2020.

The applicant is in custody since 26.07.2019.

Learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that Dharmendra, the

main accused in the present case has already been granted bail by this Court

in M.Cr.C. No.15959/2020 on 30.06.2020 after he consented to deposit a

sum of Rs.20 Lakhs in cash within one month from the date of the order. It

is further submitted that although subsequently when the application was

filed by the other accused person (s), it has been dismissed by the another

Bench of this Court which was assigned the cases and all the bail

applications of other accused persons have been decided independently by

rejecting the same.

It is further submitted that the applicant is in jail since 26.07.2019 and

final conclusion of trial is likely to take sufficiently long time and no

purpose would be served the keep the applicant in jail who is mere

employees of the company which has duped the investors to the sum of

Rs.23,59,93,763/-.

The attention of this Court has also been drawn by the counsel for the

applicant towards paragraph No.28 and 29 of the judgment rendered by the

Supreme Court in the case of Sanjay Chandra v. CBI reported in (2012) 1

SCC 40 relevant paras of which read as under:-

"28) We are conscious of the fact that the accused are charged with economic offences of huge magnitude. We are also conscious of the fact that the offences alleged, if proved, may jeopardize the economy of the country. At the same time, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the investigating agency has already completed investigation and the charge sheet is already filed before the Special Judge, CBI, New Delhi.

Therefore, their presence in the custody may not be necessary for further investigation. We are of the view that the appellants are entitled to the grant of bail pending trial on stringent conditions in order to ally the apprehension expressed by CBI.

29) In the view we have taken, it may not be necessary to refer and discuss other issues canvassed by the learned counsel for the parties and the case laws relied on in support of their respective contentions. We clarify that we have not expressed any opinion regarding the other legal issues canvassed by learned counsel for the parties."

(emphasis supplied)

Counsel has also submitted that similarly situated co-accused person

(s) Ghanshyam, Vikram Rathore, Nepal Singh and Mahesh have already

been granted bail by this Court in Miscellaneous Criminal Case

No.10115/2021, Miscellaneous Criminal Case No.27738/2021,

Miscellaneous Criminal Case No.45244/2021 and Miscellaneous Criminal

Case No.59103/2021 respectively vide order dated 21.12.2021 and the case

of the applicant is similar to them.

Thus, it is submitted that the bail application be allowed and the

applicant be released on bail, maintaining parity.

Counsel for the respondent / State, on the other hand, has opposed the

prayer and it is submitted that no case for grant of bail is made out.

Having considered the rival submissions and on perusal of the case

diary as also the decision rendered in the case of Sanjay Chandra (supra),

this Court finds that the applicant is languishing in jail since 26.07.2019,

thus he has already completed more than two and half years in

incarceration.

A status report was also called from the Trial Court which reveals that

until now only two witnesses have appeared in the Trial Court and their

examination-in-chief only has been recorded and in that also, they have not

supported the case of the prosecution and have been declared hostile and it

has been stated by them that they have already received the amount in time.

A perusal of the charge sheet also reveals that it contains two sets of

witnesses. In "A" list, there are as many as 43 witnesses whereas in "B" list,

51 witnesses have been cited. Although, the bail application has been badly

drafted and the counsel appearing for the applicant has not cared to mention

as to how many more witness are still to be examined, however, on perusal

of the aforesaid status report of the Trial Court and the charge sheet, it is

apparent that around 94 witnesses are still to be examined. Thus, it is

apparent that it would take quite sufficiently long time to examine all these

witnesses or even half of them.

In view of the same, and also taking note of the decision rendered by

the Supreme Court in the case of Sanjay Chandra (supra), no purpose

would be served to keep the applicant in jail for an indefinite period of time

specially when the main accused has already been granted bail after his

depositing a sum of Rs.20,00,000/-.

Accordingly, in the considered opinion of this Court, the applicant's

application deserves to be allowed on certain strict direction, maintaining

parity with other co-accused persons.

Accordingly, without reflecting anything on the merits of the case,

the application filed under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. on behalf of the applicant

is hereby allowed subject to his / her depositing a sum of Rs.1,00,000/-

(Rupees One Lakh) in the manner as provided hereunder, and the said

amount shall be subject to the final outcome of the case by the trial Court.

It is further directed that upon applicant's or any other person on

his / her behalf, depositing a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh) in

a fixed deposit in a nationalized bank and producing the receipt / certificate

of the same before the concerned trial Court, he / she shall be released on

bail on his / her furnishing a bond in the sum of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty

Thousand only) with one surety bond of the same amount to the

satisfaction of the trial Court, to appear before the trial Court on the dates

given by the Court. The deposit receipt/certificate so produced by the

applicant shall be endorsed by the learned Judge of the lower Court to be,

'furnished towards the bail of the applicant (s) and shall be subject to the

final decision of the case by the trial Court'.

It is also observed that the applicant shall also abide by the conditions

enumerated under Section 437 (3) Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 and if the

applicant is found in any of the criminal activities, after his / her release on

bail, then the present bail order shall stand cancelled without further

reference to this Court; and the State / prosecution will be free to arrest the

accused in the present case also.

This order shall be effective till the end of the trial, however, in case

of bail jump, it shall become ineffective.

Certified copy as per rules.

(Subodh Abhyankar) Judge Pithawe RC

RAMESH CHANDRA PITHWE 2022.03.15 16:38:16 +05'30'