TMI Blog2018 (4) TMI 1846X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ortionate assets comes to ₹ 1,28,24,881/- - a careful scrutiny of the aforesaid figures would manifest that even if the contention of petitioner is accepted and some errors in the appraisal of the income, expenditure and assets are taken into consideration, still, AO possessing assets disproportionate to his income cannot be ruled out at this juncture. Of course, I must hasten that this is only a theoretical analysis to know about the existence or non-existence of prima facie case to consider the bail application. Ultimate truth has to be exhumed after investigation. Hence, there exists a strong prima facie case against AO which requires a thorough investigation. The contention of petitioner that the Registry of High Court has granted permission to register FIR in a post-haste manner does not hold water because, the letter dated 17.03.2018 of Director General, ACB to the Registrar General would show that upon securing permission, the ACB at first conducted discrete enquiry against AO and submitted a report and after satisfying with the prima facie material, the High Court accorded permission to register the FIR against AO. Hence it appears a methodical exercise was underta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ial Public Prosecutor for ACB ORDER In this petition filed under Sections 437 and 439 Cr.P.C, the petitioner/AO craves for bail. 2) FIR No.05/RCA-CR-1/2018 dt.16.03.2018 was registered against AO by the Inspector of Police, ACB, City Range-I, Hyderabad for the offence under Section 13(1)(e) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short PC Act, 1988) on the allegation that the AO, who is working as Presiding Officer, Labour Court-I, Nampally, Hyderabad, has acquired assets worth ₹ 1,96,44,000/- disproportionate to his known source of legal income. 3) The investigation is reported to be pending. 4) The AO was arrested on 17.03.2018 and his bail application in Crl.M.P.No.215/2018 was dismissed by the Principal Special Judge for SPE ACB Cases-cum-IV Additional Chief Judge, City Civil Court, Hyderabad on 28.03.2018. 5) It is an economic offence. With mans pursuit for materialistic pleasures increased, the economic offences started waxing. The height of the concern for the society in recent period unfortunately is that the law protectors, the guardians of public rights are being frequently involved in economic and white collar offence ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... affected the fibre of the country's economic structure. Incontrovertibly, economic offences have serious repercussions on the development of the country as a whole. Para 25: Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offence having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds needs to be viewed seriously and considered as a grave offence affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country. iii) In Shivani Rajiv Saxena v. Directorate of Enforcement and others , the High Court of Delhi observed thus: Para 13: The offence alleged against the petitioner falls under the category of economic offences which stand on a graver footing. These crimes are professionally committed by white-collared people which inflict severe injuries on both health and wealth of the nation. Such offences need to be dealt with a heavy hand and releasing such accused on bail will affect the community at large and also jeopardize the economy of the country. The plea of parity is also not tenable in this case since the court did n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nce on bails, the case on hand has to be perused. 9) Learned Senior Counsel for petitionerSri C.Nageshwar Rao, while strongly refuting the accusation against the AO would seek for bail on the following main plank of argument: a) Firstly, out of the 19 items of the properties cited by the IO, Items 1 to 4 and 6 to 13 were alone related to petitioner and his family members and they were acquired with the prior permission of the High Court. Whereas Items 14 to 19 do not belong to him and they relate to his mother-in-law, sister-in-law and co-brother. If this aspect is properly considered, there can be no scope for holding him guilty of possessing disproportionate assets. Hence, there is no prima facie case against him. b) Secondly, he would argue that the Vigilance Cell of High Court granted permission to register a case in a post-haste manner without calling for an explanation from the Officer on his assets. c) Thirdly, it is argued that the ACB officials already searched his house and bank locker and seized the concerned records and nothing more is left for further search and seizure. Added to it, the other records relating to service particulars of the petitioner are av ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... -15 by N.Pulla Rao. Therefore, a threadbare investigation is necessary to know the financial resources of Pulla Rao and Nagakumari and Sravani the daughter of AO and to confirm whether the AO laundered money in the said construction firm in their names. Learned Spl.P.P. would further submit that the investigation has to unearth the huge amounts paid by AO towards Margadarshi chits in the name of his family members. The IO has to investigate about the withdrawal of ₹ 41 lakhs from the bank account and expenditure details. Added to it, the AO applied for permission to purchase 11.67 acres of agricultural land worth ₹ 32 lakhs in Yedamolu village, W.G.District. However, as per the information secured by IO he was purchasing 14 acres of land worth more than two crores and the said aspect also requires a thorough investigation. In this regard, the IO has already addressed 16 letters to different authorities to secure authenticated information and replies are being awaited from the concerned. Since the investigation is in the crucial stage, if granted bail, the AO being a Judicial Officer and law knowing person will certainly use his legal skills to sabotage the investigation ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion of AO ₹ 3,38,94,881-00 Assets disproportionate to income ₹ 2,50,40,881-00 Thus, after conducting preliminary searches the value of disproportionate assets increased to ₹ 2,50,40,881/-. This figure does not include in itself the worth of valuable articles recovered from the locker of AO in SBI, Warasiguda Branch, Hyderabad. No doubt, in the grounds of bail application, it is the contention of AO that out of 19 items cited, items 1 to 4 and 6 to 13 alone belong to him and his family members and rest of the items belong to his sister-in-law and others. Even if the said contention is taken into consideration, the value of items 1 to 4 and 6 to 13 mentioned in remand report roughly comes to ₹ 2,16,78,881/-. However, his savings for the said period were only worth ₹ 88,54,000/-. Therefore, even if his contention is accepted, still the worth of disproportionate assets comes to ₹ 1,28,24,881/- (₹ 2,16,78,881/- minus ₹ 88,54,000/-). Thus, a careful scrutiny of the aforesaid figures would manifest that even if the contention of petitioner is accepted and some errors in the appraisal of the income, expenditure and assets are taken into co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... articularly when prima facie case is found out. 14) The next factor to be considered is the possibility of AO meddling with investigation and tampering the evidence. In this regard, the submission of Spl.P.P. is that the investigation is at the infancy and the IO has to investigate the affairs of M/s.Deepu Constructions wherein the daughter and sister-in-law of AO are Directors and huge amount of ₹ 5 crores was invested in it during 2014-2015 by N.Pulla Rao. The IO apprehends that the AO has pumped in his ill-gotten money into said firm. Further, investigation is also required to be made with regard to purchase of 14 acres of land by AO in Yedavolu village as he obtained permission to purchase only Ac.11.67 cts. The cost of the land is about ₹ 2 crores. That apart, investigation shall be made regarding huge amount paid by AO towards Margadarsi Chits in the name of his family members and his withdrawal of ₹ 41 lakhs from the bank account, his purchasing the car in the name of his mother-in-law and some other related transactions and if AO is at large, he will meddle with investigation. This Court finds force in the above submission. AO being Judicial Officer, th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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