The court affirmed that serious fraud allegations necessitate custodial interrogation, and delay in FIR does not negate the urgency for investigation.

JUDGMENT :

SUMEET GOEL, J.

1. By this common order, the aforesaid two petitions are being disposed of together, as they emanate from a common FIR. For brevity, the facts are being taken from CRM-M-39346-2025 titled as Saravjeet Singh @ Sarvjeet Singh @ Garry vs. State of Haryana .

2. Present petition has been filed under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanihta (hereinafter to be referred as ‘ BNSS ’) for grant of anticipatory/pre-arrest bail to the petitioner(s) in case bearing FIR No.265 dated 19.06.2025, registered for the offences punishable under Sections 406 and 420 of IPC at Police Station Chandimandir, District Panchkula.

3. The gravamen of the FIR pertains to an incident in which the complainant namely Malkiat Singh alleged that after a raid conducted by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 23.01.2024 at his residence, he and his family were approached by one Tarun (PA to an MLA) (petitioner in CRM- M-42373-2025) and Garry (petitioner in CRM-M-39346-2025), who assured them that the ED proceedings would be dropped if they paid a sum of Rs.1.00 crore. Under pressure, the father, uncle and relatives of the complainant arranged the amount in two installments i.e. Rs.50.00 lacs handed over at village Kapuri near Ambala and another Rs.50.00 lacs delivered at Mohali. Subsequently, the complainant discovered that the accused Tarun and Garry (petitioners herein in both the petitions) had misappropriated the entire Rs.1.00 crore and had not paid anything to ED officials. Thereafter, the accused started demanding an additional amount of Rs.8.00 crores and threatened to have the family of the complainant arrested through ED and also issuing threats to their lives. On these allegations of fraud, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal breach of trust, the FIR in question was registered and investigation ensued.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner – Saravjeet Songh @ Sarvjeet Singh @ Garry has iterated that the instant FIR is nothing but a gross abuse of the process of law and has been lodged with an ulterior motive. Learned counsel has further iterated that the allegations are highly improbable and suffer from material contradictions as the alleged occurrence pertains to 23.01.2024 and 24.01.2024 whereas the FIR has been registered only on 19.06.2025, after an unexplained and inordinate delay of about one and a half years. According to learned counsel, such belated registration of the FIR casts a serious doubt on the veracity of the allegations. Furthermore, the allegations levelled are vague and general in nature without any cogent or corroborative material against the petitioner. In fact, the complainant himself admits that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) did not recover any objectionable document(s) from his house thereby eliminating any occasion for the petitioner(s) to part with such a huge amount. Moreover, the gravamen of the complaint is against Kulwant Singh, MLA, in whose presence the alleged discussion regarding settlement was initiated and at whose instance his PA (co-accused) has approached. Surprisingly, despite such categorical allegations, the said MLA has not even been arrayed as an accused whereas the petitioner, who is mere a property dealer having no connection whatsoever with the MLA has been falsely implicated. It has further been urged that there is clear lack of territorial jurisdiction inasmuch as the alleged payments were purportedly made at Ambala and Mohali yet the FIR in question has been registered at Panchkula, where no part of the alleged occurrence