The severity of the crime and its impact on public confidence can be decisive factors in denying bail, especially in cases involving manipulation of government processes.

JUDGMENT :

Rajeev Kumar Dubey, J.

1. This is third application under Section 439 of the Cr.P.C. for grant of bail. Applicant Sumeet Golwalkar was arrested on 11/04/2019 in connection with Crime No. 12/2019 registered at Economic Offences Wing, Bhopal (MP) for the offence punishable under Sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468, 471 of the IPC, Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 7 read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

2. The earlier bail applications filed by applicant were dismissed on merit by this Court vide orders dated 25/06/2019 & 31/10/2019 passed in M.Cr.C. Nos. 19786/2019 & 40800/2019 respectively.

3. As per prosecution story, M.P. State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'MPSEDC' is a body working under the State of M.P. Department of Science and Technology. The Department of Information Technology, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh adopted the e-Tendering System using an online platform in 2006. In the year 2012 Government of Madhya Pradesh appointed MPSEDC, as the Nodal Agency for MP e-procurement portal. MPSEDC selected M/s. Tata Consultancy Services with Antares Systems Ltd. as the new Implementation Agency for end-to-end e-Procurement solutions. The agreement with TCS & Antares was signed in the year 2013. The New Service Providers undertook the Customization, Integration, Implementation and Maintenance of Single, Unitary, Web-Based e-Procurement Software (Portal) with the specified modules which also include E-Tendering. Co-accused Manohar M.N. was the Vice President of Antares Systems Ltd. and was the project in-charge on behalf of the company. Co-accused Nandkishor Brahme was posted as OSD in MPSEDC from the year 2012 and was assigned the duty as Nodal Officer of E-Tendering Project. In the E-Tendering Project, MPSEDC made a platform available to various Government Departments for floating tenders. In the tendering processes, the concerned Department which issued the tender uploaded its tender on the portal, on which the last date of filing tender and the time of its opening was mentioned. While issuing the tender, the concerned officer also attached the public key of his digital signature. The tenderer after registering himself on MP e-Procurement portal filled the tender and after filing the tender, submitted the tender on the portal after it was encrypted by the public key of the officer concerned attached with the tender. After submission of the tender, no departmental officer, e-tendering company or another person could open the tender before its opening time.

4. On 11th April 2018 at the time of opening of three tenders Nos. 91, 93 & 94 floated by the Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam Maryadit (hereinafter referred as 'MPJNM' the computer displayed a message that 'the contents of the document had been modified'. On that service provider company, Antares Systems Ltd. was directed to submit the report after inquiry. In the first report given by the team of Antares Systems Ltd. after examining the system, they mentioned that there was no irregularity and only attributed the message to technical defect. However, they also stated that further technical analysis was going on. Thereafter, on 05/05/2019 Antares Systems Ltd. again gave the Root Cause Analysis Report (R.C.A.) mentioning therein that the tenders had been tampered with. On that, the then Managing Director of MPSIDC informed MPJNM for cancelling these bids and also directed Antares Systems Ltd. to enquire all the tenders, which were floated by the various Government departments between 01/01/2018 to 30/04/2018 on E-Portal. On that, the team of employees of Antares Systems Ltd. again enquired the matter and gave the report to the effect that during the check period six other tenders i.e. tender of MP Road Development Corporation No. 786, Public Works Department Tender Nos. 49813, 49982 & 49985 and tender of Water Resources Department Nos. 10030 & 10044 were also manipulated similarly.

5. Thereupon, on