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2020 (12) TMI 156 - HC - SEBIFraudulent use of the mutual funds units of the complainant - Applicant seeking the grant of regular bail - applicant herein malafidely facilitated the accused director Awanish Kumar Mishra and AFSPL in using the said fraudulently transferred mutual fund units for margin - applicant seeking interim bail on the account of his wife’s illness - HELD THAT:- Applicant was in a fiduciary capacity and has allegedly committed gross breach of trust in relation thereto in alleged connivance with other co-accused persons of an alleged amount of INR 344.07 crores, and it has to be taken into account the factum that the complainant is a public limited company, and that the members of the public have also consequently been allegedly defrauded of the amount of INR 344.07 crores by alleged fraudulent use of the mutual funds units of the complainant of INR 344.07 Crores by the accused persons inclusive of the applicant arrayed as the accused no.4 by inter alia creation of 350 shell companies. Applicant is alleged to have committed an economic fraud which affects the moral fabric of society, coupled with the factum that economic offences corrode the very fabric of democratic governance and probity in public life and are considered to be the gravest offences against the society and the persons alleged to have committed such offences are necessarily required to be treated differently in the matter of bail. What is brought forth through the observations therein is to the effect that merely because a person who was not arrested by the police or Investigating Agency during investigation nor produced in custody as envisaged in Section 170 of the Cr.P.C., 1973 ought not to be taken into custody merely because the charge sheet has been filed, the same however, does not spell out an embargo on the Court to reject a prayer made for bail by such an accused not arrested during investigation or not produced in custody, to be taken into custody in the circumstances where the facts of a case as alleged bring forth the gravity and magnitude of the alleged commission of an offence and consequently negate the grant of bail. As regards the contention raised on behalf of the petitioner that the petitioner was not a flight risk and there is no scope of his tampering evidence and influencing the witnesses, the same per se does not suffice to grant bail to the applicant in view of the magnitude of the alleged commission of breach of fiduciary trust placed. In the circumstances the bail application filed by the applicant seeking the grant of regular bail is rejected and as regards the prayer made by the applicant seeking the grant of interim bail for the reasons that his wife is unwell, it cannot be overlooked that the proceedings in the present application are pending since institution in June 2020 and apparently there is no urgency qua the treatment of the applicant’s wife required - The bail application in the circumstances is dismissed.
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