STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. RAJENDRA SHANTILAL NAHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD. Rule. Shri Girme waives service for respondent. Reply has been filed. "parties have argued at length. Rule made returnable forthwith.

(2.) BEING aggrieved by the order dated 11-2-2002 passed below Exhibits 8, 9 and 14 in Special Case No. 1 of 2002 releasing the three accused on bail by the special Judge, Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes Act, 1999 at Nasik, the State Government initially had filed Criminal Revision Application No. 138 of 2002 and subsequently as per the leave granted by this Court vide drder dated 27-11-2003, it was converted into a Criminal Application revoking the inherent powers of this Court under section 482 read with section 439 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code for cancellation of the bail granted to accused No. 1 Rajendra Shantilal Nahar. Before I-proceed to discuss the rival contentions, the case of the prosecution requires to be set out in brief.

(3.) RAJENDRA s/o Shantilal Nahar, a resident of Ahmednagar town started nahar Tobacco Industries Limited sometimes in 1999 with other three persons viz. Sanjay Satyanarayan Agarwal, resident of Nagpur, Jaikishan munnalal Karva, resident of Hyderabad and Mahesh Baheti, also a resident of hyderabad. They proposed to start a factory at Ghodegaon, a place close to ahmednagar town for the manufacture of gutkha and Rajendra Nahar was responsible for production activities, Sanjay Agarwal was responsible for supply of raw material, Jaikishan was responsible for marketing in the Southern states and Mahesh Baheti was responsible for the accounting functions. Within six to seven months, the business collapsed due to heavy losses and it is the case of the police that some of these persons turned towards a more lucrative business of circulating counterfeit notes in the market. It is alleged that sometimes in February 2000, through the contacts of Sanjay Agarwal, Rajendra nahar met Prakash alias Pradeep Saklecha of Pune and it was agreed that this Pradeep Bhai would supply fake currency notes through Bharat Saklecha and in return, the accused No. 1 would give 50% to 60% of the value of the fake currency notes in the form of valid currency notes. The first parcel that the accused No. 1 received was of Rs. 2,87,000/- in the denomination of Rs. 100/- through Bharat Saklecha, the second one of Rs. 2,00,500/ -. Thereafter, the business activities flourished and the accused No. 1 received Rs. 5,00,000/- in the denomination of Rs. 500/- each at Radhika Hotel, Nana peth, Pune, Rs. 7,00,000/- at Subhadra Hotel, Jangli Maharaj Road, Pune and through the international contacts, Rajendra Nahar then received Rs. 5,00,000/- near the Railway Station, Pune, Rs. 10,00,000/ near Swagat Hotel, Railway Station, Pune, Rs. 8,00,000/- near Rahul Restaurant and Bar, shivaji Nagar, Pune and Rs. 7,00,000/- near Rahul Theatre, Shivaji Nagar in the month of May and June 2001. It is the case of the police that this Rajendra nahar opened simultaneously, two bank accounts, one with the Burudgaon road Branch of the Ahmednagar Shahar Sahakari Bank Limited and the other one with Dwarkadas Mantri Nagari Sahakari Bank, Market Yard Branch, ahmednagar and he went on depositing these fake currency notes. On or about 21/06/2001, the Ahmednagar Shahar Sahakari Bank Limited received from accused No. 1, a deposit in cash of Rs. 10,00,000/- or more and this money was, in turn by the said bank, remitted to the Treasury Bank i. e. State Bank of India at Ahmednagar, all in the currency notes of Rs. 500/ -. The Receiving Officer with the State Bank of India suspected that all these 2000 notes amounting to Rs. 10,00,000/- were doubtful and, therefore, a group of officers met the Assistant General Manager of the said bank on 2 5/06/2001 and described the whole episode. The said Assistant General manager Shri Ashok Pandit, instead pf filing an F. I. R. , alerted the Ahmednagar shahar Sahakari Bank Limited and asked his sub-ordinates to record the statements of the employees of the said bank. In addition, he referred ail these 2000 currency notes to the police who, in turn, forwarded these notes to the Government of India Security Press at Nasik where from he received a report on or about 6/07/2001 stating that out of these 2000 notes, 1950 were fake and thus an F. I. R. came to be registered with the Bhingar Camp police Station at Ahmednagar on 7/07/2001.