SUKASH @ SUKESH CHANDRASHEKAR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition the petitioner seeks bail in case FIR No.56/2017 under Sections 467/468/471/474/170/120B/201 IPC and Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 registered at PS Crime Branch.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has been in custody since 16th April, 2017 i.e. for a period of 18 months. No further recovery is to be made from the petitioner. The petitioner was granted custody parole for a period of more than 50 days while his wife was unwell which concession he did not misuse. Charge-sheets in all the cases against the petitioner have been filed and the trials therein will take substantial time. Petitioner is at best the middle man and the beneficiary of the transaction has already been granted bail. Medical condition of the petitioner's wife is serious and thus he is required to be with her for medical assistance. The offences alleged against the petitioner would at best be punishable up to 5-7 years imprisonment and the petitioner cannot be kept in custody indefinitely. Reliance is placed on the decisions reported as State of Rajasthan, Jaipur Vs. Balchand Alias Baliay, (1977) 4 SCC 308 and Sanjay Chandra Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation, (2012) 1 SCC 40, Suresh Kalmadi Vs. CBI, (2012) 2 ILR(Del) 630 and H.B.Chaturvedi Vs. C.B.I.,2010 SCCOnLine(Del) 2155

(3.) Learned APP for the State opposing the bail application submits that the petitioner is involved in a serious offence and after the recovery of Rs. 1.30 crores from the raid conducted at the room of the petitioner when the petitioner was taken into custody, recoveries of identity cards/credit cards, cards of being a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) which was fake, were recovered. The card showing identity as a Member of Parliament would have entailed the petitioner to access Parliament precinct and Railway Pass besides other facilities. Even the Indian Youth Congress Identity Card which the petitioner had submitted for checking-in the hotel was found to be forged. The Mercedes car recovered was also affixed with the sticker of Member of Parliament. Further, after the arrest the petitioner impersonated himself as the Judge of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and tried to influence the learned ACMM on which FIR No.100/2017 under Sections 170/189/507/34 IPC was registered at PS Subzi Mandi. Thereafter, the petitioner impersonated himself as PS to Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Cabinet Minister for Law & Justice for getting favours in Tihar Jail for which FIR No.166/2017 under Sections 170/419/120B IPC was registered at PS Crime Branch. The petitioner was also providing undue favours to the police escort team which had taken him to Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Mumbai. As many as 24 cases are pending against the petitioner all over the country. Hence, seeing the seriousness of the offences, propensity of the petitioner to commit offences and his conduct showing that he is likely to hamper the trial, no bail should be granted to him.