JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner has invoked jurisdiction of this Court under section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) seeking bail in a case arising out of FIR bearing Crime No. RC0042022A0008 for offences under Sections 201, 408, 411, 420 and 120-B IPC registered with Police Station, CBI, Jammu.

2. Briefly stated, the case of the prosecution is that pursuant to the decision of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted investigation into the allegations of irregularities in written examination of Sub Inspector posts in the Jammu and Kashmir Police that was conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (for short, the J&K SSB). The aforesaid decision was taken by the Government pursuant to the report of the Enquiry Committee constituted by the Government. As per the report of the Enquiry Committee, there was a criminal conspiracy among the officials of J&K SSB, M/s Merit Trac Bengaluru, beneficiary candidates and other accused persons, as result of which, gross irregularities were committed in the conduct of written examination of Sub Inspector posts in the J&K Police. The said examination was conducted by the J&K SSB on 27.03.2022 and its result was announced on 04.06.2022. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir after receiving complaints with regard to irregularities committed in the conduct of the examination, decided to cancel the examination and transfer the investigation to the CBI on 08.07.2022. This was done pursuant to the report of the Enquiry Committee.

3. The summary of the investigation conducted by the CBI as contained in the charge-sheet filed by the said agency before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jammu, is reproduced as under:

19. Thus, from the aforesaid facts and circumstances, statement of witnesses and documents collected during investigation, it is established that the accused Yatin Yadav entered into criminal conspiracy with other accused persons. In pursuance to the said criminal conspiracy, accused Pradeep Kumar, employee of KYR Infosys Pvt. Ltd. committed criminal breach of trust and stole the question paper of JKPSI exam and dishonestly handed over the same to accused Yatin Yadav. In pursuance to criminal conspiracy accused Yatin Yadav contacted other accused persons namely, Anil Kumar, Surender Singh, Bajinder Singh to arrange candidates for sale of question paper. In pursuance to criminal conspiracy, accused Surender Singh arranged candidate Akshay Kumar through accused Kashmir Singh and Asheesh Yadav arranged candidate Mukhtar Ahmed. Both these candidates were provided leaked question paper at Rewari. In pursuance to criminal conspiracy, accused Anil Kumar contacted accused Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Kumar to solicit candidates. Accused Bajinder Singh also solicited candidates through Sanjay Kumar Dutta (investigation on this aspect in underway). In furtherance to criminal conspiracy, accused Ashwani Kumar contacted accused persons namely Kewal Krishan, Raman Sharma, Jagdish Lal, Amit Sharma, Suresh Kumar, Rakesh for arranging candidates. In furtherance to criminal conspiracy, candidates were taken to Karnal and provided leaked question paper in lieu of money. In the entire offence, accused Ashok @ Ashok Pandit, Asheesh Yadav, Sulinder helped the accused in distributing question papers and in booking hotels. In pursuance to criminal conspiracy, accused Ashwani Kujmar and other accused persons of J&K made arrangements for providing leaked question paper to candidates at Gangyal. The accused Jagdish Lal further entered into criminal conspiracy with accused Dr. Karnail Singh, Shubam Kala and others and distributed leaked question paper at the residence of accused Dr. Karnail Singh. Investigation established the role of candidates accused Jaisuriya Sharma, Tarsem Lal and Vikas Sharma in as much as they joined the criminal conspiracy actively participating in the same. They also accessed the leaked question paper themselves. Due to illegal