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2021 Supreme(P&H) 424
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH
Harinder Singh Sidhu, J.
Sanjay Chawla - Appellant
Versus
State Of Haryana - Respondent
Cr M (M) No. 100 of 2021, 138 of 2021, 37627 of 2020, 37883 of 2020, 39209 of 2020, 39230 of 2020, 39233 of 2020, 40278 of 2020
Decided On : 16-03-2021
R.S. Rai, Advocate, Gautam Dutt, Advocate, J.S. Pannu, Advocate, Rakesh Kumar Khanna, Advocate, M.F. Khan, Advocate, Puneet Bali, Advocate, Nitin Kaushal, Advocate, Akshay Bhan, Advocate, Aman Talwar, Advocate, Ishan Gaur, Advocate, Mukul Rohatgi, Advocate, Omar Ahmad, Advocate, Ashok Aggarwal, Advocate, Tapan Kumar, Advocate
The court found that the petitions for anticipatory bail in a case involving allegations of fraud under Sections 406, 408, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506, and 120-B IPC were not justified due to the complex money trail and incriminating WhatsApp messages indicating the involvement of the accused in the fraudulent activities.
Headnote:
The petitions were filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C for grant of pre-arrest bail in a case involving allegations of fraud under Sections 406, 408, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506, and 120-B IPC. The complaint alleged a conspiracy to cheat and defraud the complainant company, Philips, through the preparation of false purchase orders and invoices for services not rendered. The accused, including former and serving employees of Philips and vendors, were alleged to have misused the company's systems and processes to siphon off money. The investigation revealed a complex money trail and incriminating WhatsApp messages indicating the involvement of the accused in the fraudulent activities. The court found that there was no material to show that the allegedly fraudulent invoices were for actual services rendered, and the money transactions between the vendor companies and the accused remained unexplained. The court concluded that it was not a fit case to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioners and dismissed the petitions.
JUDGMENT
Harinder Singh Sidhu, J. - This order shall dispose of eight petitions bearing CRM-M100-2021, CRM-M-138-2021, CRM-M-37627-2020, CRM-M-37883-2020, CRM-M-39209-2020, CRM-M-39230-2020, CRM-M-39233-2020 and CRM-M-40278-2020. All these petitions have been filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C for grant of pre-arrest bail in case FIR No.267 dated 28.09.2020 under Sections 406, 408, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506 and 120-B IPC, Police Station DLF Phase-II, Gurgugram.
2. The FIR has been registered on the complaint of Rajat Luthra, Designated Market Procurement Leader, Phillips India Ltd. (for short "Philips"). In his complaint he alleged that certain vendors as well as former and serving employees of Phillips in a criminal conspiracy with each other prepared fake invoices for services not even requisitioned by Phillips and raised bills in furtherance of the same. The said bills were then cleared in collusion with serving officials of Phillips and payments were made to vendors on behalf of Phillips for services not rendered, thereby causing wrongful loss to Phillips India and wrongful gain to the accused. The alleged amount so misappropriated/embezzled had been estimated to be Rs.8 crores for the period 2019-20 and even prior thereto.
3. The five vendors named in the FIR are: (1) M/s DA Healthcare (2) M/s H.T. Computers (3) M/s Marrsis Disha (4) M/s PRV Computers India (5) Delphi Infosolutions Private Limited.
4. The two former employees named were Anuj Gureja and Gaurav Sehgal. Four then serving employees named were Vivek Kumar Jaiswal (Market Procurement Manager), Sachin Saxena (Third-Party Procurement Executive), Kamal Jain (Finance Business Partner -Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis) and Neeraj Bhatia (Senior Manager, Supply Chain Management). Later their services were terminated.
5. The modus operandi alleged was that the above named serving employees prepared false Purchase Orders in favour of the five named vendors for procurement of services that were not required. Qua these false Purchase Orders no indent or requisition was sent by the relevant department of Philips.
6. The vendors then utilized the numbers of these false Purchase Orders, generated fraudulent invoices and sent the same to Phillips demanding payment. It was stated that the Department Head of Phillips K Gopi had also confirmed that no services had been received qua those Purchase Orders and the fraudulent invoices.
7. It was alleged that after evaluation of the material it had come to light that Anuj Gureja and Gaurav Sehgal, former employees of Phillips were the masterminds behind the illegal operation. They had worked in the Philips 'Vendor Management Team' till January 2018 and August 2019 respectively. They understood the loopholes in the procurement process and misused the same for cheating Phillips by processing Purchase Orders, invoices and payments through electronic method. It was stated that this became known when the serving employees namely Vivek Kumar Jaiswal, Sachin Saxena, Kamal Jain, Neeraj Bhatia and Bhanu Gorver were questioned and their Whatsapp messages and e-mails were examined. They admitted that after getting enticed by the conspiracy woven by Anuj Gureja and Gaurav Sehgal, Sachin Saxena alongwith other serving employees prepared fake Purchase Orders . Vivek Kumar Jaiswal accepted/consented to some of the Purchase Orders and helped in the payment of the fraudulent invoices of vendors.
8. It was alleged that for generating some false Purchase Orders Neeraj Bhatia gave his VPN access credentials to Anuj Gureja and Gaurav Sehgal enabling them to access the systems of Phillips and prepare false Purchase Orders. Kamal Jain as Financial Planner could have found out about the cheating but he concealed the fraud from Phillips. For that he took an amount of Rs. 10 lakh from one vendor. Kamal Jain had admitted that Anuj Gureja was his friend. It was further alleged that in an internal inquiry Vivek Kumar Jaiswal and Sachin Saxena had admitted to being b
