The court granted regular bail to the applicant, emphasizing the lack of need for custodial interrogation and the completion of the charge sheet.

JUDGMENT :

NEENA BANSAL KRISHNA, J.

1. First Bail Application under Section 439 /482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 /under Section 483 /528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (hereinafter referred to as „B.N.S.S.‟) has been filed on behalf of the Applicant, Neeraj Gupta @ Neeraj Dengre for grant of Regular Bail in FIR No. 520/2023 under Section 420 /406/409/120B Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as „ IPC ‟) registered at Police Station Kotla Mubarakpur.

2. It is stated that the above said FIR was registered on the basis of Complaint dated 06.06.2023 of Sh. Umesh Kumar Goel, proprietor of Kuru Agri Products against the Applicant and other persons, on the allegations that the Applicant had approached the Complainant representing himself to be the agent in the business of spices, while other co-accused persons were introduced as dealers in the spice trade. It was further alleged that under the garb of business transactions, the Applicant took Orders for supply of various spices and assured that they would be kept in Sudarshan Cold Storage at Gwalior.

3. The Complainant believed the assurances of the Applicant and paid a total sum of Rs.97,85,475/- in the month of April/June, 2021 to the four Suppliers, namely, (i) Jai Mahakal Trading Co. C/o Somya Agrawal; (ii) Agrawal Enterprises C/o Ram Kumar Goel; (iii) Jai Durga Traders C/o Rakesh Kumar Gupta and; (iv) Rehab Traders. The Complainant further claimed that on 29.03.2023, he checked the Sudershan Cold Storage for the status of the items purchased by him, but was shocked to see that no item was ever kept there and he had been duped of his hard earned money.

4. On his complaint, FIR No. 520/2023 under Section 420 /406 of the IPC was registered at Police Station Kotla Mubarakpur on 02.12.2023.

5. After registration of FIR, the Complainant improved his case substantially as he further alleged that he had also paid a sum of Rs.21,50,000/- to Manvi Traders C/o Poonam Gupta on 27.07.2022 for purchase of spices/large Cardamom. He also added that he had supplied goods worth Rs.23,73,400/- on 04.12.2021 to Ram Traders C/o Ramji Soni and goods worth Rs.43,24,053/- to Kanishka Traders C/o Jyoti Gupta on 30.09.2021 and 05.10.2021, but has not received the payment for the same.

6. He further completely somersaulted from his earlier version by saying that GST Department raided Sudershan Cold Storage in October, 2021 and seized the goods belonging to the Complainant. In February, 2022, the Applicant got the goods released from GST Department on behalf of Kuru Agro Products/Complainant by filing an Application and other allegedly forged documents, without any authority from the Complainant.

7. The Applicant has asserted that the story put forth by the Complainant as well as, the Investigating Agency, is self-contradictory and it is highly doubtful that the alleged offences were made out against the Applicant. The dispute inter se the parties is purely civil and criminal proceedings have been initiated as an arm twisting tactic to illegally harass the Applicant.

8. It is a matter of fact that during the investigations, the Complainant amicably settled the matter with the co-accused, namely, Rakesh Gupta, Ram Kumar Goel, Poonam Gupta and Soumya Aggarwal, though this fact has been concealed from the Court. It is only during the hearing of the Bail Application before the learned ASJ on 12.11.2024, the Applicant filed certain documents showing the compromise with other co-accused per