Court No. - 52
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 9884 of 2021 Petitioner :- Rahul Gupta Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Jai Shanker Malviya Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Vivek Kumar Birla,J. Hon'ble Shree Prakash Singh,J.
Heard Sri Jai Shanker Malviya, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Manish Goyal, learned Additional Advocate General assisted by Sri Syed Ali Murtuza, learned A.G.A. for the State respondent.
The relief sought in this petition is for quashing of the F.I.R. dated 30.1.2021 registered as Case Crime No.45 of 2021 under Sections 420, 147, 323, 504, 506 I.P.C. Police Station Katghar, District Moradabad. Further prayer has been made to direct the respondents not to arrest the petitioner in the aforesaid case.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is only an employee of the company and that all offences are punishable with imprisonment of seven years, hence, Section 41-A Cr.P.C. would be applicable.
Sri Manish Goyal, learned Additional Advocate General, submitted that a scheme known as Bike Boat was floated wherein huge amount of Rs.29,76,52,09,644.62/- has been received from approximately 2,46,462 investors. It was further submitted that a big scam has taken place which has now reached about 15000 crores. The State Government has transferred about 11 First Information Reports related to the Bike Boat scam lodged at police station Dadri, Gautam Budh Nagar to the Central Bureau of Investigation. At present, there are 105 F.I.Rs. in existence and same are being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing as per the directions of the Director General Public Grievance. Even the Directorate of Enforcement Lucknow has issued Press Note in this regard. It is further submitted by Sri Goyal that it is a case where custodial interrogation is necessary. It is further pointed out that out of 19 Directors including Additional Directors, only 16 Directors/Additional Directors have been arrested so far and three of them are absconding. It was further pointed out that as on date EOW could investigate the scam of almost 4000 crores from the paper-trail available as the document and computers were designedly burnt and more than 1015 motor bikes have been seized by now and the entire gang was operating in about seven States and about a dozen districts of the country.
Submission, therefore, is that even as per the guidelines issued in the case of Arnesh Kumar Vs. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 273, there is no prohibition on arrest of the petitioner. Custodial interrogation of the petitioner is warranted as there is apprehension of destroying the evidence by the accused person or there are chances of repetition of the fraudulent action. Further submission is that the F.I.Rs. are now about 105 in number and no protection in the case is to be granted to such accused persons. He has further drawn our attention to the fact that Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 489 of 2021, Sanjay Bhati and fourteen others Vs. State of U.P. and two others, challenging the First Information Report dated 16.10.2020 registered as Case Crime No.697 of 2020 under Sections 2, 3(1) U.P. Gangster & Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 at Police Station Dadri, District Gautam Budh Nagar has been dismissed by a detailed Judgment and order dated 16.7.2021. The other petition being Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 2191 of 2021, Sanjay Bhati and two others Vs. State of U.P. and five others, which was filed seeking direction to the respondents to allow the petitioners to access the assets of the company and seeking certain other reliefs has been dismissed on 16.3.2021. It has further been pointed out that five bail applications being Criminal Misc. Bail Application Nos.18772 of 2021, 18775 of 2021, 19022 of 2021, 19214 of 2021 and 19379 of 2021, all titled as Badri Narain Tiwari Vs. State of U.P, have been rejected by this Court by common Judgment and order dated 14.12.2021. Criminal Misc. Anticipatory Bail Application U/S 438 Cr.P.C. No. 8606 of 2020 Deepti Bahal Vs. State of U.P. was also rejected by this Court by order dated 5.1.2021. Submission, therefore, is that it is a case where looking into the magnitude of the scam and fraud committed by the accused persons to the tune of almost 15000 crores duping about 2.5 lakhs investors including retired army personnel, who have invested their hard earned money, the reliefs as prayed in the petition is not liable to be granted.
Undisputedly, specific role has been assigned to the petitioner, Rahul Gupta. In such view of the matter, we find that it is a case where prima facie custodial interrogation may be necessary and in view of the parameters settled by the Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar (supra) in paragraph 7.1, the arrest of the petitioner may be necessary. Needless to say that Arnesh Kumar (supra) does not place complete prohibition on arrest of the accused persons in certain circumstances.
Considering the above submissions and perusing the impugned first information report, we find that prima facie commission of cognizable offence is made out. Therefore, in view of the law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of State of Haryana and others vs. Bhajan Lal and others, 1992 Supp.
(1) SCC 335 and M/s Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of Maharashtra, AIR 2021 SC 1918 and in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.3262/2021 (Leelavati Devi @ Leelawati & another vs. the State of Uttar Pradesh) decided on 07.10.2021, no case has been made out for interference with the impugned first information report.
Accordingly, the writ petition stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 22.12.2021 Ram Murti