CRL OP(MD). No.2559 of 2022

BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT

( Criminal Jurisdiction )

Reserved on : 07.02.2022

Delivered on : 11.02.2022

PRESENT

The Hon`ble Mr.Justice K.MURALI SHANKAR

CRL OP(MD). No.2559 of 2022

R.K.Mani ... Petitioner/ 4^th Accused

vs.

The State represented by

The Inspector of Police,

District Crime Branch,

Thanjavur.

Crime No.80 of 2021.

... Respondent/ Complainant

For Petitioner : Mr.ARL.Sundaresan, Senior Counsel

for Mr.P.T.Rakesh, Advocate

For Respondent : Mr.E.Antony Sahaya Prabahar

Additional Public Prosecutor

PETITION FOR BAIL Under Section 439 of Cr.P.C.

PRAYER :- For Bail in Crime No.80 of 2021 on the file of the

Respondent Police.

ORDER : The Court made the following order :-

The petitioner/A.4, who was arrested and remanded to judicial

custody on 27.12.2021 for the offences punishable under Sections

120B, 406, 467, 468, 471, 477A and 420 IPC, in Crime No.80 of 2021,

seeks bail.

2.The case of the prosecution is that 41969 sq.ft. of the

property belonging to the Thanjavur Municipal Corporation was taken

on lease by Sri Sudharsana Sabha, in the year 1925 for 99 years,

that the petitioner and other accused became the members of the said

Sabha on 01.05.1991, that though the lease was taken to conduct

auspicious and spiritual functions, the office-bearers had subleased

the premises to various persons to run hotel, bar, mobile shop,

etc., that the Sabha did not even pay the annual lease amount of

Rs.20/- till now, but they had subleased the Sabha property and

caused wrongful loss to the Corporation to the tune of

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CRL OP(MD). No.2559 of 2022

Rs.19,14,01,627/-, that the said property has been sealed under

Tamil Nadu Public Premises Eviction of Unauthorized Occupant Act,

that they have preferred an appeal before the Principal District

Court, Thanjavur and the same is pending, that the Corporation

authorities have come to know that the petitioner and other office-

bearers have filed forged and fabricated documents as if, 90 members

have elected the accused as the office-bearers, that several death

persons were shown to have been alive and subscribed their

signatures in the said documents and that since COVID-19

restrictions were in force there could not be any meeting on

09.08.2020 and that the petitioner and other office-bearers had

unlawfully occupied the Sabha property, fabricated the documents and

have played fraud on Court.

3.The case of the petitioner is that Sudharasana Sabha is a

lease holder of the said land for 99 years which will come to an end

on 12.05.2025, that there were several attempts by the Thanjavur

Corporation to evict the Sabha and take over the property, that the

Sabha filed a suit in O.S.No.1 of 1974 and obtained permanent

injunction against Corporation, that the suit filed by the

Corporation in O.S.No.392 of 1976 was dismissed, that the Sabha

filed another suit in O.S.No.297 of 2011 for permanent injunction

and the same was decreed, that the appeal preferred by the

Corporation was ended in dismissal and that since the Corporation

having failed in all the attempts, has now taken the present method

of registering several false complaints against the office-bearers

with an ulterior motive to evict the Sabha from the subject

property.

4.The learned Senior counsel for the petitioner would submit

that the petitioner is not aware of any documents filed in appeals

in C.M.A.Nos.25, 26, 27 & 28 of 2021 as he was under the custody

when the said appeals were preferred, that the said appeals were not

filed under his instructions and that therefore, it cannot be said

that the petitioner was involved in the conspiracy and the offence

of cheating or misleading the Court to pass the wron