Read Time: 08 minutes

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into a 2013 case of fraud against two directors of a firm and dismissed their pre-arrest bail plea with a fine of ₹5 lakh each while indicating that the higher police officers in the state had helped the accused, giving them "tailor-made reports" and acting outside the scope of law by conducting inquiries instead of doing investigation in cases where FIRs are registered. 

Noting that the accused have already successfully delayed the investigation for seven years with the help of police officials, Court observed,

“Over the last few years, by practice, the high ranking officers of state police have invented a strange extra legal procedure of conducting inquiries in crimes after registration of FIR, instead of following the statutory provisions of investigation…It seems that according to these senior police officers the statutory provisions are antiquated, who deal with the representations of accused persons like a skillful sculptor to give tailor-made report in their favour.”

Also, noting that the petitioners were deliberately toying with the law, a bench of Justice Manoj Bajaj held,

“Petitioners are deliberately toying with law as well as process of Court either by distorting or concealing facts with an object to defeat the process of prosecution by filing baseless, deceptive and unfair litigation, and are being shielded also by police officials. Consequently, these petitions being devoid of merit deserve to be dismissed with exemplary cost.”

The bench was hearing pleas for grant of anticipatory bail in a case where the FIR was registered in October 2014 under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B, and 201 Indian Penal Code, (IPC) 1860 on the basis of a complaint filed by one Sharan Dass, who had a bank account in a UCO Bank Branch in Bathinda.

The complainant had alleged that the accused persons, namerly Arjun Bhanot and Rakesh Bhanot of Arjun Mal Retail Holding Private Ltd had cheated him of ₹2 crores in connivance with the bank officials.

He had alleged that the bank sanctioned ₹6.5 crore loan to the two accused without proper documents. When the matter came to light, the bank officials approached the complainant to lend the accused persons ₹2 crore. When he refused, his blank cheques with the bank as security were used and ₹2 crore secured from HDFC Bank was transferred to the account of the firm owned by the accused persons in December 2013.

The present petition was the fourth attempt of the accused persons to seek anticipatory bail where all earlier ones had failed sans merits.

Court highlighted that by entertaining the representation on behalf of the accused, the senior police officials have created a remedy of hearing for the accused during the pendency of the investigation, which is not in consonance with the principles of administration of criminal law.

Stressing over the lackadaisical approach of the State Police during the investigation of the matter, the court noted that despite the dismissal of previous anticipatory bail applications of these petitioners in August-October, 2016, they were neither associated with the investigation nor any steps were taken to file the said report before the court of competent jurisdiction.

Therefore, stating that the police officials had failed to carry out the investigation in a lawful manner, the High Court transferred the investigation to the CBI with immediate effects stressing the existence of the exceptional grounds.

“This kind of improper investigation erodes the public confidence in the rule of law,” the Court said.

Furthermore, the court fined the petitioners with a cost of Rs.5 lakh each to be deposited with Director, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh (for poor patients) within a period of two months from the date of the order.

Case Title:

Arjun Bhanot vs. State of Punjab and another

Edited by Shreya Agarwal