IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
NEENA BANSAL KRISHNA, J.
Central Bureau Of Investigtation, Through Supdt. Of Police, Banking Securities Fraud Branch, New Delhi - Petitioner
Versus
Ashok Kumar Raheja, S/o. Sh. Ram Chand Raheja – Respondent
Crl.M.C. 3004 of 2021, CRL.M.A. 18809 of 2021
Decided On : 05-02-2026
| Table of Content |
|---|
| 1. petition for setting aside previous order. (Para 1) |
| 2. allegations of fraud against respondent. (Para 2 , 3 , 4) |
| 3. investigation completion and sanction order. (Para 5 , 6) |
| 4. request for documents from cbi. (Para 7 , 8) |
| 5. challenging supply of non-relevant documents. (Para 9 , 10 , 11 , 12) |
| 6. court’s authority on document relevance. (Para 13 , 14) |
| 7. consideration of validity of sanction during trial. (Para 15 , 16 , 17) |
| 8. respondent's position on document relevance. (Para 18 , 19) |
| 9. necessity for fair sanction procedure. (Para 20 , 21 , 22 , 23) |
| 10. document relevance at charge framing stage. (Para 24 , 25) |
| 11. power of court to summon documents. (Para 26 , 27) |
| 12. accused's right to document production. (Para 28 , 29) |
| 13. disclosure of documents for justice. (Para 30 , 31) |
| 14. relevance of documents in pre-trial phase. (Para 32 , 33) |
| 15. judge's role in assessing prosecution case. (Para 34 , 35) |
| 16. rights of the accused during charge framing. (Para 36 , 37) |
| 17. limitations on document requests by accused. (Para 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42) |
| 18. conclusion on sanction documents. (Para 52) |
| 19. final ruling on petition. (Para 53 , 54) |
JUDGMENT :
NEENA BANSAL KRISHNA, J.
1. Petition filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, has been filed on behalf of the Petitioner CBI seeking setting aside of Order dated 09.04.2021 of the learned Special Judge (PC Act) (CBI) – 02 Delhi, whereby the Petitioner/CBI had been directed to provide a copy of the Request Letter issued to the Complainant Bank seeking sanction for prosecution of the Respondent and also to provide draft Sanction Letter if supplied by CBI to the Complainant Bank, while seeking sanction to prosecute the Respondent (accused).
2. Briefly stated, case RCBD12015E0006/CBI/BS&FC/DLI was registered against Respondent on 19.05.2015, on the basis of written Complaint dated 27.04.2015 received from Mr. D.C. Kar, Regional Manager, Indian Overseas Bank, Regional Office, Chandigarh. As per the allegations in the Complaint, during the period 2008 onwards, M/s Green Valley Plywood Ltd., Mr. Jagmohan Kejriwal, Chairman & Managing Director, Mrs. Anju Kejriwal, the then Director, M/s G.R. Bansal & Co. through its Partner Mr. G.R. Bansal, and other unknown public servants of Bhiwani Stand, Rohtak Branch and Connaught Place Branch of Indian Overseas Bank, and others, cheated the Complainant Bank to the tune of Rs.71.79 crores on the basis of forged 86 LCs worth Rs 70.49 crores, which were got opened by M/s Green Valley Plywood Ltd. and other forged supporting documents; through fraudulent transactions and by furnishing fake Invoices purportedly in the name of supplier Firms. The borrowers defrauded the Bank with dishonest intention to siphon off the public fund for the purpose other than for which it was sanctioned. The Company indulged in fraud and fabrication of proforma Invoices of various non-genuine Suppliers. The LCs were got issued by the borrower on the basis of forged documents which were subsequently not paid, which caused wrongful loss to the complainant Bank to the tune of Rs.71.79 Crores and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves.
3. The allegations against the Respondent Ashok Kumar Raheja, the then Chief Manager and Branch Head of Indian Overseas Bank, Rohtak Branch, was that during the period from September, 2010 to February 2012, he deliberately did not perform his duties diligently. Being the Branch Head, it was imperative on his part to ensure that the officials in the Credit Department adhered to the Policy of the Bank while issuing the Letters of credit, on the request of M/s Green Valley Plywood Ltd. During the relevant period, LCs worth Rs.66,84,39,913.00 (Rs.67 crores approx), were issued by the Branch which got devolved and caused wrongful loss to the Bank and consequent wrongful gain to the co-accused persons. Respondent deliberately failed to ensure the adherence of prescribed rules/procedures/ terms and conditions of the sanction before issuing a
K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.
Rukmini Narvekar vs. Vjaya Satardekar & Ors.
State of Karnataka through CBI vs. C. Nagarajaswamy
State of Orissa vs. Debendranath Padhi
The Court ruled that documents not relied upon by the prosecution during the charge framing stage are not to be disclosed to the accused; issues related to the validity of prosecution Sanction arise ....
Accused cannot seek documents to prove innocence at the stage of framing charges under Sec. 91 of Cr.P.C.
The main legal point established in the judgment is that the accused's entitlement to seek production of documents under Sec. 91 would ordinarily not come till the stage of defense, and the expressio....
Prosecution must supply list of unrelied-upon documents to accused under Section 91 CrPC for fair trial, even pre-defence stage if necessary, overriding confidentiality claims for public documents.
Sanction for prosecution of public servants must reflect independent assessment; repeated refusals by the authority, absent new evidence, undermine legitimacy of prosecution.
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