The Jharkhand High Court granted bail to the Director of Company alleged of cheating investors on false promises in the much-celebrated Alchemist Group Case.
The petitioner in the present matter is Krishna Kabir. As per the case of prosecution, M/s S. B. Township India Ltd. registered with ROC, Punjab and Chandigarh was changed to M/s Alchemist Township India Ltd. with effect from 29.11.2012 which was involved in the business of real estate as per the articles of memorandum of association.
However, during investigation, it transpired that the Directors of the company collected deposits to the tune of Rs.8,86,50,950/- through their local agents and Branch Incharge, Giridih under different districts in the State of Jharkhand under the scheme of booking of product packages (booking of land) which is still unpaid to the investors. Repayment has been made to some of the investors out of the collection itself which is in violation of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978.
It was submitted by the counsel for the petitioner that vicarious liability of Director cannot be imputed until and unless there is some overt act attributed to him in the said fraud. The account of the Company was operated by Charandeep Singh Jolly who was the authorized signatory and not by this petitioner.
The amount that was withdrawn and transferred was also by said Charandeep Singh Jolly and the only allegation against him is that he received Rs.89,000/- and Rs.85,000/- way back on 18.11.2016. It is stated that this amount was part of the salary. The petitioner has co-operated with the investigation and after investigation, chargesheet has been submitted and no further purpose will be served if the petitioner is taken into custody.
A Single Bench of Justice Gautam Kumar Choudhary observed that “Considering the submissions of learned counsel and considering that the chargesheet has already been submitted and the fact as discussed above, the anticipatory bail application is allowed.”
“Hence, in the event of his arrest or surrender within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order before the learned court below, the petitioner named above shall be released on bail on furnishing bail bond of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh) with two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of learned Court below and subject to the condition that one of the Bailors must be Income Tax Payee and subject to the conditions laid down under Section 438(2) Cr. P.C” the Court concluded.
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