Point of Law: Criminal Proceedings should not be encouraged, when it is found to be mala fide or otherwise an abuse of the process of the court. Superior Courts while exercising this power should also strive to serve the ends of justice

ORDER :

ANU MALHOTRA, J.

1. The applicant, vide the present application seeks the grant of anticipatory bail in relation to FIR No. 519/2021 Police Station Prem Nagar under Section 406/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, submitting to the effect that he has been falsely implicated in the instant case and has no role in relation to the allegations in the FIR.

2. Notice of the application was issued to the State and the status report has been submitted by the State dated 27.10.2021 under signatures of the SHO Police Station Prem Nagar. Vide order dated 7.10.2021, the applicant was directed not to be arrested subject to his not leaving the city, joining the investigation, keeping his mobile phone on at all the times, dropping a pin on the Google map to ensure that his location is available to the Investigating Officer till the date 29.10.2021 which interim order has since been extended vide orders dated 29.10.2021 and 18.11.2021 and subsists till date.

3. Though the applicant has sought to mention the FIR to be one under Section 406/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, under which it is indicated to have been registered on 29.7.2021 the status report submitted by the State indicates that Sections 420 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 have also been invoked.

4. The prosecution version that has been set forth through the status report is to the effect that on 27.9.2021, the complainant Jitender Kumar Jain S/o Chela Ram Jain R/o 22A/1, New Mandi Muzzafarnagar, U.P. visited PS Prem Nagar with a written complaint alleging that he wanted to purchase a plot in Prem Nagar and in lieu of the same he had made part payment of Rs.22 lacs in cash to a person named Karan and his friend Deepak Joon on 28.7.2021 (Deepak Joon being the present applicant) but that they did not give any receipt nor property papers and rather vanished with the money of the complainant as a consequence of which on the basis of the said complaint FIR 519/21 Police Station Prem Nagar under Sections 406/34 was registered and efforts were made to trace out the accused persons but all was in vain. As per the said status report on 31.7.2021 an information was received vide DD No. 19A of Crime Branch Sector 17 Dwarka that the accused persons named Nabil Ahmed, Ravinder Singh Shah @ Ravi and Jobanjit Singh had been arrested under Sections 41.1D of the Cr.P.C., 1973 and that they had disclosed their involvement in relation to the instant case and that a sum of Rs.22 lacs had been recovered from them. The said three accused persons were formally arrested on 31.7.2021 and one day’s police custody remand was granted qua all the said three accused persons.

5. As per the status report during investigation it was brought to light that all the accused persons were running a huge nexus and were the cheating public by selling of expensive property and by money laundering by use of fake IDs and names.

6. It has been submitted further through the status report that one of the accused arrested pointed out in police custody to the residence of the other co-accused persons namely Inderjit @ Lucky and Surender @ Sunny stated to be the master mind behind all these frauds and who were still absconding. It has been stated further through the status report Surender Singh and Inderjeet Singh were the persons who met the complainant at the office at Chandni Chowk, Delhi and disclosed their names as Vikram and Vinayak to the complainant and the raids were conducted at their residence and hideouts in Delhi and Jalandhar, Punjab as they were evading arrest. It was further submitted through the status report that the applicant accused is actively involved in the plan of cheating as he along with co-accused Karan had taken the sum from the complainant and took the complainant to their office at Chandni Chowk from where all the accused persons had vanished along with the money of the complainant. As per the status report, the petitioner has joined investigation on 22.10.2021 at Police Station Prem Nagar a