( 1 ) THE petitioner along with one Amarjit Singh formerly General Manager Punjab National Bank Limited is sought to be prosecuted under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 read with Section 120-B Indian Penal Code and the charge sheet against him has been produced before the court. Earlier the bail has been refused to the petitioner a number of times by courts below and this court. This is a matter which has been frankly conceded by Mr. Ram Jethamalani but despite that he urges before me that this bail petition must be considered as, after the last bail application was rejected, fresh circumstances have come into existence and fresh developments have taken place.

( 2 ) IT may at the outset be stated that the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate after duly hearing the parties and after due consideration of the points involved has declined to charge the petitioner for offences under Sees. 467, 468 and 471 Indian Penal Code. Charges have been framed against the petitioner and his co-accused only under Section 420 read with Section 120-B Indian Penal Code. An elaborate order dated 13/3/86 passed by the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in this regard is the subject-matter of revision as both the accused have filed separate revision petitions against the said order and the state has also come up in reyision as it is feeling aggrieved by the order of the learned Magistrate in so far as he declined to charge the petitioner and his co-accused. under Sections 467, 468 and 471 Indian Penal Code.

( 3 ) IN order to appreciate the contentions raised before me I may at this stage reproduce the relevant facts. The petitioner Rajendra Singh Sethia was the Chairman of ESAL Group of Companies since April 1977 and was controlling all the financial matters of all the companies on this Group. His co-accused Amarjit Singh was posted as the Genera] Manager at the London Branch of Punjab National Bank and both of them were quite close to each other. ESAL (Commodities) Ltd. . 19/20, Noel Street, London had various accounts with Punjab National Bank at London including dollars Merchanting Accounts which was being operated by the petitioner as well, and in his capacity as the chairman of the ESAL Group of Companies was not only responsible for the transactions entered into but was also the beneficiary of the same.

( 4 ) THE financial condition of the ESAL (Commodities) Ltd. was in a bad shape and it required huge amounts in order to reduce the dues outstanding against it and he and his co-accused Amarjit Singh, towards the close of 1983, entered into a criminal conspiracy with some unknown persons to defraud and cheat Punjab National Bank London Branch on the strength of false and forged bills of exchange supported by false shipping documents purporting to show the shipments of granulated sugar to Nigeria and in pursuance to the said conspiracy four bills bearing Nos. COM/sug/0299-0302 all dated 5/12/1983 and of the total value of US $ 10400000 were submitted by the petitioner to the Punjab National Bank, London on 7/12/1983 knowing or having reason to believe that the said bills and the supporting documents were false and forged and no sugar, as was shown in the supporting documents of shipping, was shipped in the vessel "golden Venture". Those bills were drawn on Alglobe Trading Limited, Hongkong, a concern of the ESAL (Commodities Ltd. The co-accused Amarjit Singh, in pursuance of the said criminal conspiracy, dishonestly allowed an advance of US $7. 649 millions against 25% cash margin to the ESAL (Commodities) Ltd. knowing or having reason to believe that the aforesaid bills and the supporting shipping documents were false and forged. The aforesaid advance was credited to the Dollars Mer- chanting Account No. 5006-31 pertaining to ESAL (Commodities) Ltd. Furthermore, a loan of US $. 2. 351 millions was also allowed to ESAL (Commodities) Ltd. by co-accused Amarjit Singh from the said bank and, thus, the total of the aforesa