The court ruled on bail eligibility based on the lack of compelling evidence for continued detention.

O R D E R

This application is filed under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita , 2023 (for short, BNSS ), seeking regular bail.

2. The applicant is the accused No.3 in Crime No.1277/2024 of Mala Police Station, Thrissur District. The offences alleged are punishable under Sections 406 , 408, 409, 420, 465, 468 and 471 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short ‘ IPC ’).

3. The prosecution case, in short, is that accused No.1, who was the President of the Kuruvilassery Service Co-operative Bank, accused No.2, who was its Secretary and the accused No.3, who was the Junior Clerk, had, in furtherance of their common intention, forged a document in the name of a member of the Society and took a loan of Rs.3,00,000/- on 03.12.2011, took another loan of Rs.1.80 Crores in the name of accused No.1 and his family members on 29.05.2015 without sufficient security and again on 05.11.2019, suppressed an earlier loan taken in the name of one member of the society and obtained another loan that too in favour of accused No.1 and thereby committed forgery, criminal breach of trust and cheating and caused a loss of Rs.2,97,82,585/- to the Co-operative Bank and the accused thus committed the offences alleged. The F.I.R was registered at the instance of the Secretary of the Co-operative Bank pursuant to an audit conducted under Section 63 of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act , 1969.

4. I have heard Sri.Antony Paul, the learned counsel for the applicant and Sri.U.Jayakrishnan, the learned Public Prosecutor. Perused the case diary.

5. The learned counsel for the applicant submitted that the applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case. The counsel further submitted that no materials are on record to connect the applicant with the alleged crime; hence, he is entitled to bail. On the other hand, the learned Public Prosecutor submitted that the alleged incident occurred as a part of the intentional criminal acts of the applicant, and he is not entitled to bail at this stage.

6. The applicant was remanded to judicial custody on

04.11.2025. The investigation is almost over. The applicant does not have any criminal antecedents. For these reasons, I do not find any reason to hold that the continued detention of the applicant is required for any purpose. Hence, the applicant is entitled to be released on bail.

In the result, the application is allowed on the following conditions: -

(i) The applicant shall be released on bail on executing a bond for Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh only) with two solvent sureties for the like sum each to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional Magistrate/Court.

(ii) The applicant shall fully co-operate with the investigation.

(iii) The applicant shall appear before the investigating officer between 10.00 a.m and 11.00 a.m. every Saturday until further orders. He shall also appear before the investigating officer as and when required.

(iv) The applicant shall not commit any offence of a like nature while on bail.

(v) The applicant shall not attempt to contact any of the prosecution witnesses, directly or through any other person, or in any other way try to tamper with the evidence or influence any witnesses or other persons related to the investigation.

(vi) The applicant shall not leave the State of Kerala without the permission of the trial Court.

(vii) The application, if any, for deletion/modification of the bail conditions or cancellation of bail on the grounds of violating the bail conditions shall be filed at the jurisdictional court.

Sd/-