IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established in the judgment is the consideration of the nature of the dispute, the petitioner's cooperation in the investigation, and the pending civil suit in granting anticipatory bail.

ORDER

Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, J. - An application under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (`Cr.P.C.') has been preferred on behalf of the petitioner/applicant for grant of anticipatory bail in FIR No.570/2015 under Section 420 IPC registered at P.S. Rajinder Nagar, Delhi. Section 467/468/471/466/477A/34 IPC were subsequently invoked after receiving the FSL result by the prosecution.

It may be noticed at this stage itself that investigation in this case is pending since 2016 and the charge-sheet is yet to be filed.

2. In brief, as per the case of prosecution, complainant (Jaspreet Singh Marwah) alleged that he is the lawful owner of property situated at Village Chhatarpur, Tehsil Mehrauli and had borrowed Rs.75 lacs from late Shri Dalvinder Singh (brother of petitioner/accused Manminder Singh) in the year 2003. For the security of the loan amount, he had signed and handed a Sale Deed in favour of M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd. (nominee of Dalvinder Singh). As per understanding of the parties, the Sale Deed was not registered and in order to save the stamp duty, it was prepared on old stamp papers of the year 1998 in possession of Dalvinder Singh. An amount of Rs.50 lacs is further claimed to have been re-paid against the borrowed loan amount until August, 2012 to Dalvinder Singh before he expired. Thereafter, his brother Manminder Singh (petitioner/accused) took over the control and avoided taking the balance payment (principal/interest amount) out of the loan amount of Rs.75 lacs and started interfering in the complainant's possession of the said property. M/s Nuway Organics Naturals India Ltd. is stated to be in control of M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd. after transfer of equity.

3. It is further the case of the prosecution that since the petitioner/accused claimed the aforesaid property on the basis of registered Sale Deed executed by the complainant in favour of M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd., he was directed to produce the original Sale Deed as well as Balance Sheet and Annual Returns of M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd. to prove the ownership of the property in question. Also, Shri R.P. Mahindra, earlier Director of M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd. was joined in investigation, who after looking at the copy of the Sale Deed denied his signatures and also stated that so long as he was the Director of the Company till 2002 since its incorporation, no purchase of the said property was made in the name of M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd.

Further, during investigation, office copy of Sale Deed, as claimed to have been registered in Vol. No.1530, Addl. Book No.1 in the year 1998, along with original Peshi Register of 02.12.1998 was seized from the office of Sub-Registrar, Mehrauli, New Delhi. The same reflected that the impugned Sale Deed bearing registration No.5579 had different signatures/handwriting of the Sub-Registrar, on comparison with the preceding and succeeding documents. As such, the same was sent for forensic examination, which confirmed that the signatures of Sub-Registrar were forged. Also, the entries in the Peshi Register pertaining to registration No.5579 had been defaced beyond recognition, which reflected that there was tampering of registration.

It also came up during investigation that the stamp papers which were used for preparation of the Sale Deed were purchased from Ludhiana, Punjab for purchase of some property in 1998 by M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd. and as per Shri R.P. Mahindra, Director of the company, the same were handed over at the time of transferring shares of the company.

Contentions on behalf of the petitioner

4. Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner/accused submits that the petitioner is a stranger to the transaction. During the period Dalvinder Singh was alive till 2012, neither any suit/proceeding was filed by the complainant, nor any FIR was initiated. The property is further stated to have been mutated in favour of M/s Nuway Organics Naturals India Ltd. since the equity of M/s Mohindra Papers Ltd. stood transferred in fa