Court No. - 1
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 48484 of 2018 Applicant :- Panna Lal Shailaney Opposite Party :- Central Bureau Of Investigation Counsel for Applicant :- Vijay Prakash Mishra,Sri V.P. Srivastava, Senior Advocate Counsel for Opposite Party :- Gyan Prakash
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Dinesh Kumar Singh-I,J.
Heard Sri V.P. Srivastava, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Sri Vijay Prakash Mishra, learned counsel for the applicant, Sri Gyan Prakash, learned counsel for the C.B.I. and perused the record.
It has been contended by the learned counsel for the applicant that the applicant was posted as Executive Engineer/Deputy Chief Engineer in the Railways at the relevant point of time. He further submits that the applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case as he has already rejected the claim of the complainant of the case on 2nd May, 2018, hence, there was no occasion for the applicant to demand Rs.5 lacs from the complainant of the case for the payment which was to be made by the Railways. He further submits that the brief-case of the applicant was lost on 4.8.2018 at 11.15 a.m. for which an FIR was lodged by him on 4.8.2018 at police station Tundla, District Firozabad under Section 379 I.P.C. in which Rs.25,000/- was being kept along with other documents of the applicant. He argued that the pre-trap proceeding against the applicant is manipulated one. He has drawn the attention of the Court towards the pre-trap memorandum which was prepared in a room on 24.8.2018 at 5.15 p.m. whereas the FIR was lodged at 5.10 p.m. i.e., within five minutes of lodging of the FIR. The allegation levelled against the applicant is absolutely false, frivolous and baseless.The applicant is in jail since 24.8.2018.
Learned counsel for the C.B.I. has vehemently opposed the prayer for bail and submitted that the applicant while posted and functioning as Executive Engineer, Construction, Tundla at Agra during the period from 29.4.2016 to 24.8.2018, by abusing his official position as public servant, had demanded on 21.8.2018 illegal gratification 40% of total payment amount approximately Rs.76 lacs from the complainant, namely, Sri Deepak Agarwal, authorized signatory of M/s. PCC-SC Agarwal for passing the payment in the head of U segment and cribs. As the complainant expressed his inability to pay such a huge amount, then the applicant reduced his demand to 25% of the total payment and agreed to accept Rs.19 lacs as illegal gratification, failing which the applicant could do whatever required including destruction of documents for passing the payment. The applicant further refused to clear the pending issue unless the demand is fulfilled. He further submitted that the pre-trap against the applicant was planned by the C.B.I. officials along with the complainant and the C.B.I. team caught the accused applicant red handed for demanding bribe and for having accepted Rs.5 lacs as an instalment of bribe amount of Rs.19 lacs. Thereafter, the wash of fingers of both hands of accused Panna Lal was taken in the solution of sodium carbonate in presence of witnesses and other C.B.I. team members including the complainant. The solution of both hands turned in pink colour which also confirmed that he had accepted the tainted money with hands. CFSL has also given positive report in this regard. He next contended that during the post trap proceeding, conversation has also been recorded and the sound of accused applicant has been identified by the witnesses. The applicant after accepting the bribe money of Rs.5 lacs kept the same in his brief-case and the said brief-case was kept on the left side of sitting chair of the applicant. After the trap, the applicant was interrogated for disclosing the digital locking number for opening the brief-case. The lock opening number "539" was informed by the applicant to the trap team of C.B.I. in presence of witnesses, thereafter the lock was opened by Sri B.P.Singh, Inspector, CBI/ACB, Ghaziabad in presence of the independent witnesses and the bribe money was recovered by Brij Mohan another witness.Thereafter, the Pre Trap Memo was given to both witnesses to check the serial numbers of the bribe money recovered from the brief-case of applicant, they checked the serial numbers of the bribe money and found the same and thereafter the bribe money was sealed in an envelop. In addition to the bribe money of Rs.5 lacs, the brief-case also contained identity documents of the applicant as well as Rs.55,000/- which goes to show that the brief-case belonged to the applicant. He contended that the the argument of learned counsel for the applicant that the C.B.I. has planted Rs. 5 lacs in the brief- case of the applicant is absolutely incorrect and false as he failed to explain the recovery of Rs.5 lacs from his brief case and he appears to have got a false FIR under Section 379 I.P.C. that his brief case has been lost.
Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case and considering the submission advanced, we find no good ground for grant of bail to the applicant-Panna Lal Shailaney involved in Case Crime No. R.C.1202018A007 of 2018, under Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, Police Station C.B.I./A.C.B., Ghaziabad Accordingly, the bail application is rejected.
However, the trial court is directed to expedite the trial of the present case and conclude the same expeditiously preferably within a period of one year from the date of production of a certified copy of this order, if there is no legal impediment.
(Dinesh Kumar Singh-I, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.) Order Date :- 18.12.2018 NS