ORDER

This application is filed under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita , 2023 (for short, BNSS ), seeking pre-

arrest bail.

2. The applicant is the accused No.1 in Crime No.

54/CB/EKM of 2015 pending before Crime Branch Office, Ernakulam District. The offences alleged are punishable under Sections 403 , 406, 420, 465, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code , 1860 and Section 17 of the Kerala Money Lenders Act .

3. The prosecution case, in short, is that with an intention to cause wrongful loss to the defacto complainant and wrongful gain to the applicant, the applicant who was engaged in the business of money lending for exorbitant interest, while giving loan to the defacto complainant, obtained blank stamp paper. The accused nos. 1 to 7 converted the blank stamp paper into a forged agreement and created the forged sketch of the property and the same was produced before the court as well as Village Office as original, caused loss to the defacto complainant and thereby committed the above offences.

4. I have heard Sri.Anoop V. Nair, the learned counsel for the applicant and Sri.M.C.Ashi, the learned Senior Public Prosecutor. Perused the case diary.

5. The learned co