JUDGMENT :

J. C. DOSHI, J.

1. By way of the present petitions under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the petitioners have prayed to release them on anticipatory bail in case of their arrest in connection with the FIR registered as C.R.No.11199061231168 of 2023 registered with Ankleshwar City ‘B’ Division Police Station, Bharuch.

2. The brief facts leading to filing of the present application are as under.

2.1 As per the FIR, accused No.1 is administrator of Navi Masjid who forged letter granting permission of sale of land bearing Survey No.722, Area 0-52-67 and used the same to prepare a sale deed. Hence, the FIR came to be registered. The incident took place on 17.05.2022 and the FIR has been registered on 22.12.2023 after a delay of 19 months. The name of the petitioners have not been mentioned in the FIR though it has been registered after a detailed inquiry. The only role alleged against the petitioners is that they helped accused No.1 in forging a letter giving approval to sell land bearing Survey No.722, Area 0-52-67. It is the case of the petitioners that they were doing their job in the office. The petitioners preferred anticipatory bail applications being Criminal Misc. Application Nos.43 of 2024 and 81 of 2024 before learned Sessions Court, Ankleshwar and the same came to be rejected by the learned Sessions Court, Ankleshwar vide orders dated 12.01.2024 and 25.01.2024, respectively.

3. Heard learned Senior Advocate Mr.I.H.Syed assisted by learned advocate Mr.Aniq Kadri appearing for the petitioners, learned Senior Advocate Mr.Shalin Mehta assisted by learned advocate Mr.Manish Shah appearing for the first informant and learned APP appearing for the State.

4. Learned Senior Advocate Mr.Saiyed taking this Court through the entire record of the bail application(s) would submit that the present petitioners are not named in the FIR. The petitioners who are working with the office of the Wakf Board are innocent. The role of the present petitioners stated is limited to the extent that they brought an order from the office of the State Wakf Board and handed over to the trustees of the Navi Masjid Trust. He would further submit that though the order of the Wakf Board dated 10.06.2015 having outward No.3980 of 2015 and outward No.7227 of 2015 are alleged as forged documents, such orders are passed in year 2015 after following the due process laid down in the Wakf Act. He would further submit that even it is not a case of prosecution that no meetings of the concerned office had taken place or it was never decided to auction the property. He would further submit that since there is no allegation of forging the order of the Wakf Board at least by these two persons, the petitioners have prima facie case. He would further submit that the persons who are benefited from the alleged forged order of the Wakf Board have been granted either anticipatory bail or regular bail by the concerned Court and therefore, even principle of parity is attracted. Learned Senior Counsel would further submit that the alleged forged order is of year 2015 and the FIR came to be filed in recent past in year 2024. The petitioners are made target by concerned CEO Mr.Kumar. He would further submit that on going through the outward register of Gujarat Wakf Board, prima facie it appears that overwriting is made on the particular outward numbers to show that alleged order is forged one. He would further submit that by manipulating the outward number in the register maintained by Wakf Board, prosecution would not prove that order of Wakf Board is forged one and used as genuine one for execution of sale deed or lease deed in contravention of the provision of law.

4.1 Learned Senior Counsel Mr.Saiyed would further submit that trustees of the Wakf Board who have executed sale deed or lease deed have been granted anticipatory bail or regular bail. Learned Senior Counsel would further submit that since the management of the Gujarat State Wakf Board is cha