IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision: 04.02.2025 Prem Chand and others ...Petitioners Versus State of Haryana and another …Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANOOP CHITKARA Present: Mr. P.S. Ahluwalia, Advocate for the petitioners.

Mr. Aashish Bishnoi, D.A.G., Haryana.

Ms. Sonia Bohat, Advocate for the complainant-respondent No.2 ****

ANOOP CHITKARA, J.

FIR No. Dated Police Station Sections

596 28.11.2023 Ambala Cantt, 120-B, 406, 420, 506 IPC District Ambala

1. The petitioners apprehending arrest in the FIR captioned above have come up before this Court under Section 438 CrPC seeking anticipatory bail.

2. Vide order dated 10.01.2024, interim protection was granted to the petitioners and the said order is continuing till date.

3. The facts and allegations are being taken from status report dated 03.10.2024, which reads as follows:-

“4. That in this regard it is submitted that the Petitioners-Accused persons in order to cause wrongful loss and to get wrongful gain from the complainant hatched a conspiracy with each other and usurp the hard earned money of the complainant. The complainant is a contractor and is in a business of doing work of handling and transport of Food Corporation of India on tender basis. He engaged the petitioners-accused persons for the supervision of the work of handling and transport for the said purpose. The petitioners-accused persons used to get payments from the complainant on the pretext of making payments to trucks and labor and for certain miscellaneous works.

5. That thereafter on completion of the work, the complainant several times asked the petitioners-accused persons to provide the balance sheet of the expenditures done by them from the payments made to them by the complainant. The petitioners-accused persons started delaying the matter on one pretext or the other. Thereafter, when the accounts were settled between the complainant and the petitioners-accused persons, the amount of Rs. 2,65,00,000/- was found to be due against the petitioners-accused persons. The petitioners-accused persons failed to pay the said payment to the complainant and instead started demanding 1/3rd share in the profits and also threatened the complainant of dire 103 consequences.

6. That thereafter the complainant filed a complaint no. 2281 dated 02-05-2023 against the petitioners-accused persons. The petitioners-accused persons compromised the above matter with the complainant and in this regard a written compromise was entered into between the parties. Despite that the petitioners- accused persons failed to make payment to the petitioners-accused persons as per the said written compromise.

7. That thereafter, on complaint of the complainant, complaint no. 678-PW dated 24-11-2023 was registered and preliminary enquiry was conducted by the then SI Sultan Singh, Economic Offence Wing, Ambala. The statements of the concerned persons were recorded and the documents provided by them were examined. After enquiry it was found prima facie that the petitioners-accused persons have committed the offence under section 406,420,506 r.w.s. 120-B of IPC and ultimately the registration of FIR and the thorough investigation of the matter was recommended by the enquiry officer.

8. That thereafter FIR No. 596 dated 28-11-2023, u/s 120-B, 406, 420, 506 of IPC (Annexure P-1) was registered in Police Station Ambala Cantt. and the investigation was initiated by PSI Rohit Dhiman being investigation officer. The contents of the FIR are not repeated for the sake of brevity. During the investigation the record such as ledger books, statement of accounts, FCI tender letters, bills given by the petitioners-accused persons etc. were received from the concerned persons. The notice under section 41 of Crpc was also served upon the petitioners-accused persons on 03-12-2023 which was received by the wife of accused Bhupinder. Despite receiving said notice accused persons failed to appear before the IO and filed applications