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Synopsis

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Friday granted bail to an accused in a post-matric scholarship funds scam case where illegal disbursement of more than 200 crore rupees was done by private institutions in the name of granting scholarships to students. 

The case was registered in November 2018 and was entrusted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in March 2019. A total of 26 private institutions were to be investigated by the CBI, among which, investigation into seven institutes has been completed.

During the investigation, it was allegedly found that one institute namely Vidya Jyoti Educational Society dishonestly made illegal claims of scholarship funds to the tune of Rs. 14.41 crores for the students of SC/ST/OBC category from the Directorate of Higher Education Government of Himachal Pradesh.

It was revealed in the investigation that amount was claimed in the name of the students who had already left the institution.

The present bail applicant, Dev Jeet Singh, was the owner/General Secretary of the institute. It is alleged that he, in conspiracy with other co-accused, had dishonestly signed and forwarded the demand letters along with list of fake students for claiming scholarship amounts causing a huge loss to the Government exchequer.

Seeking bail, counsel appearing on behalf of Singh argued before the High Court that even after about more than two years, CBI has been able to file chargesheet only with respect to seven institutes and the pace of investigation in the case is very slow. 

He submitted that the investigation in respect of the concerned institution is almost complete and Singh, ever since the registration of FIR in 2018, has been participating and co-operating in the investigation by the CBI.

However, opposing the bail plea, counsel for the CBI submitted that strong evidence is available against the petitioner and expressed his apprehension that the petitioner after grant of bail is likely to abscond or tamper with evidence or influence the witnesses.

Considering the rival submissions, Court observed that the investigation into various other private educational institutions is yet going on and CBI was not able to indicate any timeline for completion of the investigation. 

Court also pointed out that the present case is not a case where multiple FIRs were registered with respect to different institutes and other accused have already been enlarged on bail

Relying upon a plethora of judgments, Court opined that Singh's plea for bail was liable to be allowed. 

Court said, " Even if present is a case of socio-economic offence of serious magnitude and respondent may have strong evidence about involvement of the petitioner, yet ‘gravity can only beget length of sentence’ provided in law, after the trial."

Case Title: Dev Jeet Singh v. CBI