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TMI Blog2022 (3) TMI 1478X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d thereby caused huge and serious financial loss to the state exchequer. It is also alleged in the complaint that he opened up several firms in the bogus names, in the name of his employees, name of his driver and other persons and got issued bills running into crores of rupees and obtained undue tax credit and thereby huge amount running into crores is suffered by the state exchequer. [2.1] In the said complaint as per the say of the applicant without making physical supply of goods to such firms which are opened up fictitiously and by passing wrong tax credit, huge tax evasion fatal to the economy is made. In view of this assertion on the complaint since the applicant apprehending arrest has earlier submitted Criminal Misc. Application No. 4548 of 2019 under Section 438 of the Cr.P.C. for seeking anticipatory bail in which the investigating officer has filed the detailed affidavit and accordingly the application was not entertained and the same was rejected on 07.10.2020. [2.2] It is the say of the applicant that though the complaint is exhaustive running into several pages but no concrete material is available against the accused and as such he preferred a petition for quashin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e has appeared on behalf of the applicant whereas Mr. J. K. Shah, learned APP has represented the respondent State. [4] With aforesaid background, the present application under Section 438 of the Cr.P.C. is taken up for hearing. [5] Mr.Zubin F. Bharda, learned advocate with Mr. Dhruvik K. Patel, learned advocate appearing on behalf of the applicant has submitted that a false and frivolous complaint is lodged in which applicant is tried to be dragged in for no fault on his part. The applicant is an innocent person and is not connected with the main offence which is alleged basically against the main accused i.e. Jitubhai Bhikhabhai Vasani. It has further been submitted that the applicant has co-operated with the investigation and on two or three occasions the statements have also been recorded and has also produced the material and as such his arrest is thoroughly uncalled for and as such protection deserves to be granted. For the purpose of substantiating this submission, Mr. Bharda, learned advocate has made an attempt to draw the attention of this Court to some of the documents attached to the application and thereby contended that no attempt is made by present applicant to get ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in a very serious economic offence no anticipatory bail protection be given. [6.1] Learned APP has further vehemently contended that the present applicant all throughout has seen to it that under one pretext or the other he may not be arrested and on earlier occasion also through another learned advocate an attempt was made to secure the anticipatory bail but having failed, this successive application is again presented under Section 438 of Cr.P.C. It has been contended that even the submissions which are made have been made in the petition for quashing but the applicant has miserably failed in getting any protection and therefore after withdrawal of the same this present application is made to seek anticipatory bail protection which, in no circumstance, be encouraged. [6.2]Mr. Shah, learned APP has submitted that time and again the Hon'ble Apex Court has deprecated or rather warned the courts not to exercise discretion so lightly especially when economic offences are alleged and here the entire tenor of the complaint in detail has clearly indicated that a systematic organized activity is going on with the aid and assistance of the main accused. The applicant, therefore, cannot ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... appropriate application before appropriate authority with all materials which have been produced in this matter and the said application also came to be disposed of as such vide order dated 02.09.2020. [11] At this stage the Court is mindful of the situation that Court is not expected to undertake exercise critical analysis of any material in anticipatory bail application but then when the petition for quashing after arguing was withdrawn almost on similar submissions and earlier application for anticipatory bail application was also withdrawn, this Court is not inclined to allow the applicant to re-agitate the very same kind of submissions that applicant is an innocent person or there is no material connecting the applicant with commission of crime since all these points have already been agitated in earlier round of application. [12] However, at this stage even apart from aforesaid situation, Court has noticed that even while examining further anticipatory bail, the concerned trial court i.e. learned 12th Additional Sessions Judge, Surat while dealing with Criminal Misc. (Anticipatory Bail) Application No.4548 of 2020 has, based upon material before him and the detailed affida ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... licant has again approached this court by filing this application for obtaining anticipatory bail. It has to be noted that, application preferred before the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat was withdrawn. There does not appear any change of facts or circumstances which existed at the time of deciding previous application for anticipatory bail of this applicant. Investigation qua the present applicant is still in progress, hence, at this stage if anticipatory bail is granted to the applicant, then it will hamper investigation, and there cannot be free and fair investigation in this offence. Keeping in view all the above considerations, this is not the fit case to exercise discretion in favour of the present applicant. Hence, following final order is passed." [13] From aforesaid circumstances, this Court is of the clear opinion that no case is made out at all of anticipatory bail particularly when it was clearly found not by once but on more than one occasion that the applicant is a part of this organized crime of economic offence and has been found to be not co-operating with the investigating officer though might have remained present for some occasion but it was clearly found f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he date of occurrence is 11.11.2019. (ii) Other 13 accused were arrested and surrendered, their confessional statements were recorded and they were released on bail. (iii) 127 private witnesses were examined and their statements were recorded. (iv) 12 months is over from the date of occurrence. (v) Six months have passed from the date of dismissal of earlier anticipatory bail application. (vi) The petitioner is aged 69 years alleged to be suffering from age related ailments and he is willing to co-operate with the investigation." We have perused the status report submitted by the Investigating Officer before the High Court for consideration along with case diary, clearly indicating that custodial interrogation of respondent No. 2 is essential and the investigation is still incomplete. Nevertheless, on the third occasion, the learned Judge acceded to the request of respondent No. 2 and granted anticipatory bail, without referring to the said status report. None of the reasons cited by the learned Judge, in our opinion, can be said to be just basis to show indulgence to respondent No. 2. As a matter of fact, successive anticipatory bail applications ought not to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing with application under Section 438 of Cr.P.C. has clearly observed that investigating machinery / agency must be given sufficient freedom in the process of investigation and the observations which are made in few paragraphs in the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of P. Chindambaram versus Directorate of Enforcement reported in (2019) 9 SCC 24, the Court deems it proper to reproduce hereunder: "69. Ordinarily, arrest is a part of procedure of the investigation to secure not only the presence of the accused but several other purposes. Power under Section 438 Cr.P.C. is an extraordinary power and the same has to be exercised sparingly. The privilege of the pre-arrest bail should be granted only in exceptional cases. The judicial discretion conferred upon the court has to be properly exercised after application of mind as to the nature and gravity of the accusation; possibility of applicant fleeing justice and other factors to decide whether it is a fit case for grant of anticipatory bail. Grant of anticipatory bail to some extent interferes in the sphere of investigation of an offence and hence, the court must be circumspect while exercising such power for gran ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the person being subjected to third-degree methods need not be countenanced, for, such an argument can be advanced by all accused in all criminal cases. The Court has to presume that responsible police officers would conduct themselves in a responsible manner and that those entrusted with the task of disinterring offences would not conduct themselves as offenders." 81. Observing that economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with different approach in the matter of bail, in Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy v. CBI (2013) 7 SCC 439, the Supreme Court held as under:- "34. Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country. 35. While granting bail, the court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, the nature of evidence in support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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