AMIT SURESH BHATNAGAR Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a successive bail application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Code'), the petitioner is allegedly involved in connection with R.C. No. RC0292018A0006 dated 26.03.2018 registered with CBI/ACB?Gandhinagar for the offences punishable under Section 120?B r/w. Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 13 (2) r/w. Section 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.). The applicant had earlier also preferred bail application being Criminal Misc. Application No. 11793 of 2018. This Court on 20.12.2018 had directed the Investigating Officer to submit the report of further investigation on 08.01.2019, since after filing of charge?sheet, C.B.I. continued to further investigate the matter. It was also directed that the Investigating Officer shall aim to complete the investigation on or before 30.01.2019 and further request on this count shall not be entertained. The C.B.I. since had desired more time, this Court without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, on 05.02.2019 had granted liberty to the applicant to approach this Court after three months, since further investigation which was going on was likely to be over.

(2.) The brief facts as alleged in the F.I.R. are as follows:

(3.) Affidavit?in?reply has filed by the respondent-C.B.I. urging that the present application is not maintainable. According to the C.B.I., on the basis of reliable source of information, a case came to be registered by CBI, ACB, Gandhinagar against M/s. Diamond Power Infrastructure Limited (DPIL), Vadodara, the founder of which is Shri Suresh Narain Bhatnagar and Managing Director of the said company is Shri Amit Suresh Bhatnagar and Joint Managing Director, Shri Sumit Bhatnagar. The present applicant is the Managing Director of the company. The searches came to be conducted at the premises on 05.04.2018, however, the applicant did not join the investigation, despite the service of notice under Section 41?A of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The applicant was arrested on 18.04.2018 and was also granted police custody remand till 27.04.2018 and thereafter till 30.04.2018 and thereafter, till today, he is in judicial custody. The applicant has filed his application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for regular bail, which came to be rejected by the Special Court. Thereafter, the applicant - accused has preferred temporary bail. Shri Amit Bhatnagar - present applicant was granted temporary bail for a period of 20 days and again he had been granted temporary bail from 17.03.2019 to 22.03.2019 and from 05.04.2019 to 08.04.2019.