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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court recently granted bail to a man accused in RO/ARO paper leak case. The accused allegedly supplied solved papers to candidates and allegedly planned to impersonate them during the exams.

On February 15 this year, Kaushambi police arrested three men from a car. Allegedly, the three men had gathered to distribute money collected from candidates of various competitive exams in exchange for facilitating cheating.

At the time of their arrest, a total of approximately Rs 8 lakhs was recovered from the accused men. Among them, Puneet Singh, the present accused, had Rs 2 lakhs in his possession.

Additionally, Puneet Singh was found in possession of a fake police identity card at the time of his arrest. Moreover, the police uncovered illegal documents stored on Puneet's mobile phone.

All three accused were booked under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66-D of the IT Act. 

Seeking bail, Puneet's counsel argued before the high court that the FIR showed that the only allegation against him was that he tried to allure innocent people to appear in the examination by using illegal means. 

He further contended that the money recovered from Puneet was intended for a legitimate transaction with a business proprietor and did not involve any illegal activity.

Highlighting Puneet's no previous criminal record, his counsel urged the court to grant him bail.

The single judge bench of Justice Sameer Jain opined that merely on the basis of recovery of Rs. two lacs from Puneet's possession, it could not be said that he indulged in commission of alleged offence. 

Court emphasised that recovery of Rs. two lacs had been explained in the bail application. 

Therefore, while emphasizing that even the FIR indicated Puneet and his co-accused only intended to take the examination by impersonating candidates, court concluded that this showed only an attempt to commit the alleged crime.

Taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case, the court deemed Puneet eligible for release on bail.

However, the court clarified that the observations made in the order were confined to the facts presented by the parties regarding the disposal of the bail application, and they will not affect the merits of the case during trial.

Advocates Binod Kumar Mishra, and Raghuvansh Misra represented the accused. 

Case Title:  Puneet Singh v. State of U.P.