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The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing anticipatory bail to Rakesh Bhanot and directing CBI probe in the 2013 Bhatinda fraud case.

 A bench of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli noted that, "We see no reason to interfere with the impugned order dated 27-08-2021 passed by the High Court of Punjab & Haryana High Court dismissing the anticipatory bail applications filed by the petitioners and directions issued relating to investigation."

The Bench, however, reduced the cost imposed by the High Court from Rs. 5 lakhs, for the petition being devoid of merit, to Rs. 2.5 lakhs.

The bench was hearing a plea challenging the High Court order dismissing the application seeking 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, namely Arjun Bhanot and Rakesh Bhanot of Arjun Mal Retail Holding Private Ltd had cheated him of Rs. 2 crores in connivance with the bank officials.

The High Court had ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into a 2013 case of fraud against two directors of a firm and dismissed their pre-arrest bail plea with a fine of Rs. 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, the Court had 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 reports 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.”

Cause Title: Rakesh Bhanot vs The State of Punjab