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2020 (9) TMI 1163 - HC - Indian LawsGrant of regular bail - serious allegations of siphoning of student scholarship funds, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misconduct, forgery, conspiracy and corruption etc. are levelled against a government official - HELD THAT:- It is well settled that grant of bail involves judicious exercise of discretionary power of the Court, wherein not only the nature of accusations, severity of punishment, nature of evidence, apprehension of influencing the witnesses, tampering with evidence, possibility of accused standing the trial are some of the factors to be considered, but the valuable right of liberty of an individual and interest of society in general also have to be balanced. r 5(i). In the instant case, FIR was registered on 16.11.2018. Pursuant to notification dated 20.03.2019, case was entrusted to CBI and was registered by it on 07.05.2019. Petitioner was arrested on 03.01.2020 and w.e.f. 08.01.2020, he is in judicial custody. Present is not a case where multiple FIRs were registered with respect to different institutes. One FIR has been registered involving all the private educational institutes. To obviate the compulsion under Section 167(2) Cr.PC, final report has been presented on 30.03.2020 under Section 173(2) Cr.PC only regarding K.C. Group of Institutions, Pandoga, District Una by keeping the investigation open under Section 173(8) Cr.PC. - Even in this challan, twelve persons have been named as accused, out of which six belong to Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh, including the petitioner. Five accused persons, who were Drawing & Disbursing Officers posted in different capacities in the Directorate of Higher Education at the relevant time and responsible for various transactions in issue, have not been arrested. This is despite the fact that all of them are facing the same FIR for the same offences and it has been alleged that all of them had conspired together. Hon'ble Apex Court in [2013 (5) TMI 920 - Supreme Court], titled Nimmajadda Prasad Versus CBI, while observing that white collar crimes were on the rise affecting development of the country as a whole, held that while granting bail, the Court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, nature of evidence in support thereof, severity of punishment on conviction, character of accused, circumstances peculiar to the accused, reasonable possibility of securing presence of accused at trial, reasonable apprehension of witnesses being tempered with, larger interests of public/State and other similar considerations. At this stage, it is not necessary to establish guilt of accused beyond reasonable doubt. Economic offences need to be viewed seriously. Present is a case where 22 institutes are involved in one FIR and not in multiple FIRs. Charge-sheet under the FIR qua one of the institute already stands filed through by keeping the investigation open under Section 173(8) Cr.PC. This was to obviate the compulsion under Section 167(2) Cr.PC. - Even if present is a case of socio-economic offence of serious magnitude and respondent may have strong evidence about involvement of the petitioner, yet 'gravity can only beget length of sentence' provided in law, after the trial. Grant of bail cannot be thwarted merely by asserting that offence is grave and therefore, petitioner should remain in custody till the investigation of all 22 private educational institutes is completed, regarding timeline of which, respondent apparently has no clue. The offending acts are already complete and reflected as such in the records. As per status report, voluminous record has already been seized by CBI during raids conducted by it in 22 private institutes, though investigation is still going on. In such situation, no purpose is going to be served by keeping the petitioner in judicial custody - Investigation should not be carried out indefinitely and forever without any regard to time, considering the interests of all involved. Nonetheless it is open to the respondent to continue to investigate into the matter, however, for this reason, petitioner cannot be permitted to incarcerate as a pre-trial prisoner. His liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution is also required to be protected. It cannot be presumed that petitioner will flee justice or will influence the investigation/witnesses. No material in support of these apprehensions has been placed on record. As per status report, CBI has already conducted searches at 22 private educational institutions and seized voluminous physical and electronic record. Premises of petitioner have also been searched. Petitioner is in custody w.e.f. 03.01.2020. He has already been suspended from government service. It is not disputed that he is a local resident and owns immovable properties in the State. The apprehensions expressed by respondent can be taken care of while imposing conditions for enlargement on bail. In the given facts and circumstances of the case, continued custodial interrogation of the petitioner is not necessary Enlargement of petitioner on bail subject to stringent conditions will not pose any threat to society. The present bail petition is allowed and the petitioner is ordered to be released on bail subject to conditions imposed.
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