The Supreme Court(SC) granted anticipatory bail on the offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 since the CBI did not require the custodial interrogation of the accused.
Mahdoom Bava, the petitioner haschallenged the orders of the High Court (HC) ofAllahabad rejecting their applications for the grant ofanticipatory bail.
The case was registered on 29.06.2019 at the instance of the Corporation Bank, for the alleged offences under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 read with Section 120B IPC and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
It was alleged that a Company by name of M/s NaftoGaz India Pvt. Ltd., secured certain credit facilities from a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India. The facilities were secured by the creation of a charge on movable properties and a mortgage of certain immovable properties.
It was evident that the Bank classified the account as fraudulent one on 03.02.2015. Further found that one of the properties mortgaged to the Bank, by third-party guarantors was later found to be involved in litigation, on account of the defective title of the guarantors.
After the CBI filed the final report on 31.12.2021, the Special Court issued a summons for the appearance of the accused on 07.03.2022. Therefore, apprehending arrest, the appellants moved applications for anticipatory bail. The applications were rejected by the Special Court and the rejection order was also confirmed by the High Court.
Justice V Ramasubramanian held that “the appellants are entitled to be released on bail, in the event of the Court choosing to remand them to custody, when they appear in response to the summoning order.”The appeals are allowed and the appellants are directed to be released on bail, in the event of their arrest, subject to such terms and conditions as may be imposed by the Special Court.
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