Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2021 Supreme(Del) 538

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Anu Malhotra, J.
Garima Gupta - Petitioner
Versus
State - Respondent
Bail Appln. No.712 of 2019 & CRLM.A. 34721 of 2019
Decided On : 01-09-2021

Advocate Appeared:
For the Petitioner:Mr. N. Hariharan, Sr. Advocate with Mr.Vivek Singh & Mr. Omkar Wata, Advocates.
For the Respondent: Mr. Sanjeev Sabharwal, APP, with Inspr. Bijay Kumar, PS EOW. Mr. Atul Kumar Singh, Counsel for Intervener.

Point of Law : Offence alleged against the Appellants is a serious one in terms of alleged huge loss to the State exchequer, that, by itself, should not deter us from enlarging the Appellants on bail when there is no serious contention of the Respondent that the accused, if released on bail, would interfere.

Headnote:
Indian Penal Code, 1860 - Sections 406/409/420/120B - Grant of regular bail - Economic offences - Extension of interim bail granted – Offence of cheating - buyers/investors were allured to invest in the project by way of dishonest inducement, misrepresentation and concealment of facts by the Directors/Officials of the Company and the booking amount as well as part payments were collected from the investors.
Finding of the Court : The construction at the site as observed hereinabove had been stopped in terms of the order of the NCLT, and there is nothing on the record to indicate that the petitioner in any manner has violated any of the conditions as imposed for the grant of interim bail from thein terms of an order of the Sessions Court; Settlements have been arrived at between 78 out of 93 investors in relation to the project MSA Circuit Heights, with the moratorium having been placed vide the order dated 11.10.2019 of the NCLT, and it is apparent thus prima facie that there is nothing to indicate that the petitioner is intentionally not fulfilling the terms of the settlement between the parties and there is nothing also to indicate that the applicant shall in any manner evade the due process of law.
Result : Disposed of

JUDGMENT :

ANU MALHOTRA, J.

1. The petitioner-Garima Gupta, presently on interim bail since 04.03.2019 in relation to FIR No.46/2018, PS EOW Cell, Mandir Marg, New Delhi dated 13.03.2018 registered under Sections 406/409/420/120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, seeks the grant of regular bail in relation thereto. The applicant is indicated to have been arrested on 04.08.2018 and was in custody till 03.03.2019 with the charge sheet having been filed on 25.10.2018. The applicant vide the present bail application apart from seeking regular bail, had also sought the extension of interim bail granted to her from 04.03.2019 which was to expire on 18.03.2019.

2. Vide order dated 18.03.2019 in the present bail application, interim bail granted to her was extended on the same terms and conditions as set out in the order dated 25.02.2019 of the Court of the learned ASJ with the prayer made by the applicant before the Trial Court for extension of the period of interim bail having been declined vide order dated 14.03.2019. The said interim bail was thereafter extended vide orders dated 10.04.2019, 23.05.2019, 30.08.2019, 16.09.2019, 15.11.2019 and 10.01.2020 with it having been directed vide order dated 10.01.2020 that the application was heard with submissions made on behalf of either side and the status report in terms of order dated 15.11.2019 having been submitted on behalf of the State with an additional affidavit with annexures having been filed by the petitioner and that the interim order would continue till pronouncement of orders in the bail application under consideration.

3. As per the status report dated 06.04.2019 submitted by the State under the signatures of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Section-V:EOW : Delhi Police, Mandir Marg, New Delhi, the FIR No. 46/18, Dt. 13.03.18, U/s 406/409/420/120-B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, PS-EOW was registered on the joint complaint of Smt. Durga Kumari & 30 other complainants/investors against the Company M/s MSA Developers Pvt. Ltd. having its Regd. office at 11/37, Ground Floor, Old Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi with it having been alleged that in April 2013, the accused company namely MSA Developers Pvt. Ltd. had made a pre-launch of a project in the name of "MSA Circuit Heights" which was to come up at Plot No. GH-G4, Jaypee Greens Sports City, SDZ, Sector-25, Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, Gautam Budh Nagar, UP and that the said company had also brought out various representations through advertisements and brochures to allure the complainants to book the apartments/flats in the said project. It was submitted on behalf of the State through the said status report that the accused company and its representatives misled the investors that the said company had already acquired the requisite land and license to start the project and that the accused company had started accepting the booking much before the statutory approvals from the concerned authority and that the money collected from the complainants/investors were siphoned off to the different accounts.

4. The said status report states further to the effect that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that the accused company had started collecting money from the complainants/investors for booking of the residential units in the said project without having the requisite approvals in place and at the time of booking there was no land with the accused company to start the project and that as per the reply of Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (i.e. YEIDA), the Building Plan of the said project was approved on 18.09.2014 and the sub-lease of the project land was executed on 22.05.2014, whereas the accused company had started collecting money from the complainants/investors from 24.06.2013 & onwards i.e. much before obtaining the statutory approvals & lawful possession of the project land. It has been stated further through the said status report that the buyers/investors were allured to inv