A P SARTHI Vs. DELHI ADMINISTRATON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition is for grant of bail to A. P. Sarthi, petitioner, who according to the prosecution, along with a number of co-accused committed offences punishable under Sections 3, 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act read with Section 120-B IPC.

(2.) S.L. Maneklal Industries Pvt. Ltd. has its head office at Bombay and branch office at 10, Hailey Road, New Delhi. Yogesh T. Maneklal was managing director of the said company while Coomer Narain was manager in charge of the Delhi office. The aforesaid . company was having dealings and collaboration with different firms in Germany, France, Poland, etc.

(3.) The case of the prosecution briefly is as follows. The foreigners wanted to exploit the assistance they were rendering to the running of the Company and wanted to obtain secret information with respect to policy of the Government of India concerning industrial finances, foreign collaboration, foreign investments as well as the one relating to defence of the country, defence production, shipping and economic planning of India. They approached Coomer Narain for carrying on the work of espionage on their behalf with the promise that the company would be financially benefited. Coomer Narain wanted to consult Yogesh T. Maneklal. Accordingly, he consulted. Yogesh T. Maneklal gave the green signal with the direction that Coomer Narain shall not obtain any money from the foreigners or foreign embassies and that he would deal with them directly.