2026:CGHC:2050 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR ORDER RESERVED ON 01.12.2025 ORDER DELIVERED ON 13.01.2026 ORDER UPLOADED ON 13.01.2026 MCRC No. 8313 of 2025

1 - Anil Tuteja S/o Late H.L. Tuteja Aged About 62 Years R/o House No.35/1396, Beside Farishta Nursing Home, Katora Talab, Civil Lines, District : Raipur, Chhattisgarh ... Applicant(s)

versus

1 - State Of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer Police Station Eow/acb, District : Raipur, Chhattisgarh ... Respondent(s)

(HON’BLE SHRI JUSTICE ARVIND KUMAR VERMA)

C A V Order

The applicant has preferred the instant application under Section

483 of the Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 seeking grant of regular bail in FIR No. 01/2024 dated 17.01.2024 registered at police station EOW/ACB, Raipur (hereinafter referred to as “subject FIR” or “said FIR”) for offences under Sections 384,409,120-B of the IPC, 1860 read with Sections 11,13(1)(a) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 pending before the learned Special Judge (PC Act) and First Additional Sessions Judge, Raipur.

2. The applicant had earlier preferred a bail application under Section 483 of the BNSS dated 07.08.2025 before the learned Trial Court which was erroneously rejected vide order dated 22.08.2025. The applicant is therefore invoking the inherent jurisdiction of this Court against the said order impugned. BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE :

3. The genesis of the instant case lies in the alleged “Custom Rice Milling Scam” in Chhattisgarh which traces its origin to Income Tax Department raids conducted on 21.08.2023 wherein a Prosecution Complaint was filed against 8 specific persons - conspicuously, the applicant was neither targeting eight persons notably, the applicant was never named. Acting on ED’s letter dated 09.01.2024 under Section 66(2) of the PMLA, Respondent No.2 registered the subject FIR on 16.01.2024 and the applicant has still not arraigned as accused. Subsequently vide letter dated 09.01.2024 under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the ED forwarded material to the respondent pursuant to which the subject FIR No. 01/2024 dated

16.01.2024 came to be registered at PS EOW/ACB, Raipur initially under Sections 120-B and 409 IPC read with Sections 11, 13(1)(a) and 13(2) of the PC Act, shockingly the applicant was not named as an accused even in the FIR.

4. Despite over 1.5 years of exhaustive investigation spanning from from 16.01.2024 to 09.07.2025, the respondent EOW/ACB never once summoned, questioned or interrogated the applicant in relation to the subject FIR thereby underscoring the complete absence of any perceived necessity or urgency for his arrest. On 01.02.2025, the respondent filed its first charge sheet under Section 173 BNSS exclusively against two principal co-accused namely Manoj Soni (MD, MARKFED and Roshan Chandrakar, (Treasurer, Rice Millers Association) wherein certain vague and unsubstantiated allegations were levelled against the applicant without formally arraigning him as an accused, strategically keeping the doors open for a future arrest. It was only on 6.10.2025 much after the applicant’s arrest that a supplementary charge sheet was filed naming the applicant and mechanically adding Section 384 IP?C to the array of offences thereby completing the investigation qua him.

5. The applicant’s protracted incarceration however, predates the subject FIR and stems from a parallel and entirely distinct “liquor scam” investigation. The applicant was first arrested on 21.04.2024 by the Ed in relation to a separate ECIR pertaining to the alleged liquor scam, an arrest which the Hon’ble Apex Court deprecated as “disturbing” and “glaring”, reflecting gross abuse of process. Consequent thereto, the applicant faced arrests in the Chhattisgarh Liquor FIR (by the EOW/ACB) and UP Liquor FIR (by UP Police) with the latter being declared illegal by the Allahabad High Court. The applicant secured regular bail in two these three cases and his bail application in