The decision to grant bail is based on the completion of investigation, nonviolent nature of the offense, and the petitioner's family situation and clean antecedents.

ARUN MONGA, J.

After being declined bail by learned trial Court, petitioner before this Court, seeks his release as an undertrial in a case bearing FIR No.30 dated 04.03.2022, registered under Sections 120-B, 406, 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short ‘IPC’) at Police Station, Anaj Mandi, Patiala, District Patiala.

2. Per prosecution case, M/s Kim Infrastructure and Developers Ltd., Patiala, invited general public to invest with them in year 2010 by way of three distinct policies: RD (Recurring Deposit), FD (Fixed Deposits), and MIS (Monthly Income Scheme). The option to acquire a plot by utilizing the maturity amount from the FDRs was also available. Members of the public, including the complainants, invested varying sums of money, amounting to a total of Rs. 39 lakh.

Subsequently, upon realizing that they had fallen victim to fraudulent activities, the investors confronted Ravinder Singh, also known as Sidhu, the promoter/owner of the company. They also filed a petition before this Court, leading to the directive for the Superintendent of Police to address their concerns. Following an inquiry conducted by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Special Crime, Patiala, it was discovered that four other FIRs under Sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code had been registered against the aforementioned company.

Further investigation revealed that complainant Lakhwinder Singh had been an employee of the said company until 2018, and Meena Kumari had been employed as an agent. Amandeep Narang, Deepak Mahajan, and Jatinder Sachdeva had also worked for the company. It was uncovered that, apart from Ravinder Singh (Sidhu), 13 of his associates were detained in custody for duping the general public in a similar fashion. They had deceived individuals by promising to double their invested funds or provide land in exchange for their investments. After registration of the FIR, during investigation, petitioner was also arrested as a suspect on 18.01.2023.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that neither the petitioner allured any person nor is/was the beneficiary of the money. He further submits that petitioner has no role to play in the commission of offence. In fact, even the petitioner himself is victim of the conspiracy hatched by the complainant and police officials. There is unexplained delay of 14 months in lodging the present FIR. As per the allegations, the alleged amount was paid from 01.11.2010 to 19.01.2021 and the present FIR has been lodged on 04.03.2022.Said delay is fatal to the prosecution, contends the learned counsel.

3.1 Learned counsel further submits that FIR was lodged under Sections 120-B, 406, 420 IPC and aforementioned offences are triable by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class. Nothing is to be recovered from the petitioner. No useful purpose would be served to keep the petitioner behind the bars to await the decision of trial of the case.

4. On the other hand, learned State counsel opposes the bail petition. She submits that cheating indulged into by Kim Infrastructures runs into crores of rupees. She further submits that petitioner has committed a serious offence. She, however, admits that no other case is pending against him.

5. I have heard rival contentions of learned counsels for the parties and have gone through the case file.

6. On a Court query, under instructions from ASI Prem Chand, learned State counsel submits that challan was presented on 19.03.2023.Investigation is thus complete qua petitioner, he is not required for custodial interrogation. Allegations against petitioner are a matter of trial at this stage. There are 126 prosecution witnesses out of them, none has been examined till date. Commencement/conclusion of the trial is likely to take quite sometime. Bail allows an accused to maintain his freedom until his guilt or innocence is determined. Whereas petitioner has already been languishing in jail for the last more than 07 months in preventive custody, he being behind bars since