The court considered the duration of custody, the nature of the offences, and the accused's cooperation in proposing schemes to revive the projects as key factors in granting bail in economic offences.

JUDGMENT

Yogesh Khanna, J.

1. Both petitioners are facing trial in various FIRs registered with Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and had filed the present bail application(s). The allegations against the present applicants are as under:

(i) M/s Cosmic Structures Ltd., (Company/Cosmic Group), was not the rightful owner of the lands on which projects were raised.

(ii) The Company was not having necessary permission/NOCs to raise the projects.

(iii) The Company was not having any approval of Noida/Greater Noida Authority for raising the projects.

(iv) Construction of the projects was very slow and the company did not hand over Units to the customers.

(v) The Company did not pay the Assured Return as promised by them.

(vi) The Company siphoned off the booking amount collected by them.

2. It is submitted the applicant has been roped in the FIRs for the sole reason they were discharging their duties in the capacity as directors but now have spent about five to six years in imprisonment in each FIR. It is stated under Section 420 IPC the imprisonment is extendable upto seven years; under Section 406 IPC the imprisonment is extendable upto three years with fine and for the offences under Section 409 IPC the imprisonment is extendable upto ten years plus fine or life.

3. Reference was made to Sections 29(1) and 325 Cr.P.C. to show the manner in which the trial and conviction under Section 409 IPC is done and the punishment if it is to be granted by the learned ACMM exceeding three/seven years.

4. It is the submission of the learned senior counsel for the petitioner the total amount allegedly cheated in the present FIR is approximately Rs.148.00 crores. Admittedly, out of the said amount, a sum of Rs.76.00 crores have been invested; Rs.29.00 crores and Rs.4.50 crores is lying in subsidiary companies which amount admittedly stood frozen by the Investigating Officer and thus only Rs.38.70 crores is the alleged cheated amount. It is submitted before the NCLT various efforts are being made by the petitioners to revive the schemes and one such scheme No.01/2020 was rather filed on 19.08.2019, but objections were filed by interested parties. On 06.04.2022 the Company Court ordered since the ex-directors of the company are in judicial custody it is difficult to accept the ex- management would be in a position to sustain any viable scheme. The accused company also propounded a scheme with M/s.Good Living Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (Bhutani Group) in October, 2020 vide company appeal no.631/2020 which proposed to invest an amount of Rs.300 crores and also proposed an option to the customers to get a unit in Bhutani's project in exchange. The accused company propounded yet another scheme with M/s.Renowned Buildtech Pvt. Ltd. vide Company Appeal no.76/2021 who proposed to invest an amount of Rs.50.00 crores and collaborate with the company for development of two projects but no order has since been passed.

5. The customer's association also propounded a scheme with M/s.Alpha Corp. in October, 2020 vide C.A.(Main) No.02/2020 who proposed to invest Rs.100 crores by taking loan on properties of liquidating companies but such scheme was also dismissed vide order dated 26.04.2022 stating inter alia the essential rationale of the scheme is to realize the value of the assets of the liquidating company and there was no upfront payment.

6. Various other schemes were also filed by M/s.Cosmic Unit Buyers Association and Cosmic Victims Association but were not accepted. It is also the case of the petitioners they had given the assured returns to customers till March, 2015.

7. On the other hand the learned ASC for the State has alleged the applicant/accused being directors were running group of companies with a sole object to cheat the investors. They opened various shell companies to siphon off the funds and were the directors in those companies as well. They have caused material damage to the economy and the trust required in order to ensure other legitimate pro