The court emphasized that prior similar offenses and strong allegations can undermine claims of innocence in bail applications.

O R D E R

Dated this the 2nd day of March 2021 APPLICATION FOR ANTICIPATORY BAIL The applicant is the sole accused in Crime No.137/2021 of Karunagappally Police Station for having allegedly committed offences punishable under Sections 406 and 420 IPC .

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that with the intention to cheat the de facto complainant, the applicant dishonestly induced the Federal Branch, Thodiyur Branch to deliver a sum of Rs.6,24,000/- to her on pledging of 50.90 grams of spurious gold on 28.9.2020 and 140.10 grams of spurious gold on 12.11.2020. The applicant states that she is innocent and is only a housewife and that she is not capable of committing such an offence and that she had only pledged her ancestral inherited gold before the Bank. After a lapse of about three months, she received notice to appear before the investigating officer and that is when she realised that the gold which was allegedly pledged by her was spurious. She suspects that her original gold has been substituted with spurious gold with the connivance of the appraiser and the Branch Manager and therefore, she seeks pre-arrest bail.

3. Heard the learned counsel for the applicant and the learned Public Prosecutor.

4. The learned Public Prosecutor points out that the applicant is not so innocent that she is involved in another similar crime, i.e. Crime No.168/2021 of Sasthamcotta Police Station, where she is accused of having pledged spurious gold ornaments to South Indian Bank, Sasthamcotta Branch, and that it is not possible that the Managers of Federal Bank and South Indian Bank Ltd. have colluded to implicate the applicant in falsely foisted cases of this nature. She has to be interrogated for the purpose of finding out the manner in which she had created the spurious gold and pledged it by cheating the Bank and misappropriating the amounts. Under the circumstances, I find that the applicant definitely has to be interrogated for the purpose of investigation. She cannot be given the exceptional remedy of anticipatory bail.

5. The applicant is, therefore, directed to surrender before the Investigating Officer within two weeks. In the event of her being arrested, after interrogation and recovery, if any, she shall be produced before the jurisdictional court, where she is at liberty to apply for regular bail, which shall be considered and preferably disposed of by the jurisdictional court on the very same day.

With these observations, the Bail Application is disposed of.