Court No. - 23
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 11636 of 2018 Applicant :- Anand Khatri Alias Atma Prakash Khatri Opposite Party :- State Of U.P.
Counsel for Applicant :- Amit Saxena,Shri V.P. Srivastava And G.S. Chaturvedi Senior Advocates Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Vivek Kumar Singh,J.
Heard Sri Gopal S. Chaturvedi, learned Senior Counsel and Sri V.P. Srivastava, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Amit Saxena, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Abhinav Prasad, learned A.G.A. appearing for the State.
It has been contended by the learned counsel for the applicant that the applicant has been falsely implicated in the present case due to ulterior motive. It is next contended that false recovery of old currency of Rs.500/- and Rs.1,000/- has been shown from the applicant when infact no such recovery has been from the applicant and there is no independent witness of the alleged recovery. It is further submitted that no offence under the charged Sections is made out against the applicant. Learned counsel for the applicant has drawn the attention of this Court towards Section No.5 of The Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, which reads as as under:-
"Prohibition on holding transferring or receiving specified bank notes.
5. On and from the appointed day, no person shall, knowingly or voluntarily, hold, transfer or receive any specified bank note:
Provided that nothing contained in this section shall prohibit the holding of specified bank notes—
(a) by any person—
(i) up to the expiry of the grace period; or
(ii) after the expiry of the grace period,—
(A) not more than ten notes in total, irrespective of the denomination;
or
(B) not more than twenty-five notes for the purposes of study, research or numismatics;
(b) by the Reserve Bank or its agencies, or any other person authorized by the Reserve Bank;
(c) by any person on the direction of a court in relation to any case pending in the court.
Referring to Section 5 of the aforesaid Act learned counsel for the applicant submits that on and from the appointed day, no person shall, knowingly or voluntarily, hold, transfer or receive any specified bank note and in contravention of Section 5 of the aforesaid Act punishment has been prescribed under Section 7 of the aforesaid Act which reads as under:-
Section 7. Whoever contravenes the provisions of section 5 shall be punishable with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees or five times the amount of the face value of the specified bank notes involved in the contravention, whichever is higher."
It next contended that the co-accused namely Omkar Yadav and Sanjay Kumar have been granted bail by this Court on 28.3.2018 and 30.3.2018 in Criminal Misc. Bail Application Nos.11269 of 2018 and 11622 of 2018, a copy of said order has been produced by the learned counsel for the applicant, which is taken on record and the case of the applicant stands on identical footing, hence the applicant is also entitled for bail on the ground of parity. Several other submissions in order to demonstrate the falsity of the allegations made against the applicant have also been placed forth before the Court. The circumstances which, according to the counsel, led to the false implication of the accused has also been touched upon at length. It has been assured on behalf of the applicant that he is ready to cooperate with the process of law and shall faithfully make himself available before the court whenever required. It has also been submitted that the applicant is languishing in jail since 17.1.2018. It has been pointed out that the applicant has no criminal history.
Learned A.G.A. opposed the prayer for bail.
Considering the nature of accusation and the severity of punishment in case of conviction and the nature of supporting evidence, reasonable apprehension of tempering of the witnesses and prima facie satisfaction of the Court in support of the charge and reformative theory of punishment the applicant is entitled to be released on bail in this case.
Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case let the applicant Anand Khatri Alias Atma Prakash Khatri involved in Cr. No.0008 of 2018, under Sections 420/511/120-B I.P.C. & Section 5/7 of Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, Police Station Swaroop Nagar, District Kanpur Nagar be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond with two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned with the following conditions.
1. The applicant will continue to attend and co-operate in the trial pending before the court concerned on the date fixed after release.
2. He will not tamper with the witnesses.
3. He will not indulge in any illegal activities during the bail period.
It is further directed that the identity, status and residence proof of the sureties be verified by the authorities concerned before they are accepted.
In case of breach of any of the above conditions, the trial court will be at liberty to cancel the bail.
Order Date :- 30.3.2018 Dev/-