SHRIKANT MOHTA Vs. REPUBLIC OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the third successive bail application of the petitioner Shrikant Mohta before this Court. The first bail application in BLAPL No.1983 of 2019 was rejected on 13/5/2019 and the second one in BLAPL No.5450 of 2019 was rejected on 2/1/2020. The petitioner approached the Hon'ble Supreme Court against the rejection order dtd. 2/1/2020 by preferring petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.839 of 2020 which was also dismissed on 10/2/2020. After the dismissal of the Special Leave Petition, the petitioner without preferring any application for bail before the learned trial Court, has approached this Court directly and filed the present bail application on 17/8/2020. The petitioner is an accused in R.C. Case No. 39/S/2014-Kol corresponding to SPE Case No. 34 of 2014 pending on the file of Special C.J.M. (C.B.I.), Bhubaneswar for commission of offences punishable under Sec. 420, 409 read with sec. 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Sec. 4, 5 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 (hereafter '1978 Act').

(2.) The present case was instituted by clubbing three first information reports of three different cases i.e. Buguda P.S. Case No.75 of 2013, Jeypore Town P.S. Case No.71 of 2013 and Nuapada P.S. Case No.82 of 2013 in pursuance of the order dtd. 9/5/2014 of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India passed in W.P. (Civil) No.401 of 2013 filed by Shri Subrata Chattoraj and W.P. (Civil) No.413 of 2013 filed by Shri Alok Jena. The factual matrix of the prosecution case is that Rose Valley Group of Companies (hereafter for short 'Rose Valley') collected huge amount of money from public enticing them with false promise of paying higher rates of interest although Rose Valley was not having any authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (hereafter for short 'RBI') or the Securities and Exchange Board of India (hereafter for short 'SEBI') for carrying out such activities and therefore, the company cheated the public.

(3.) The first bail application of the petitioner in BLAPL No.1983 of 2019 was rejected by this Court on 13/5/2019 considering the nature and gravity of the accusation, strong prima facie case available against the petitioner to show his involvement in the economic offence committed by Rose Valley, likelihood of tampering with the evidence when the investigation was at a crucial stage and several bank accounts of the petitioner and his company were under scrutiny to trace out any further money transactions with Rose Valley and above all in the larger interest of society. The second bail application of the petitioner in BLAPL No.5450 of 2019 was rejected by this Court on 2/1/2020 on the ground that the petitioner's key role in the commission of economic offence by Rose Valley is prima facie apparent and that there is deep rooted criminal conspiracy to cheat the public with an eye on personal profit and that large number of innocent depositors have been duped of their hard-earned money and that there was cool calculation and deliberate design by the accused persons to flourish the illegal chit fund business activities of Rose Valley and further taking into account the crucial stage of investigation and that the release of the petitioner who is a very influential person having close contacts with high level personalities and politicians of West Bengal is likely hamper such investigation. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the Special Leave Petition filed by the petitioner challenging the order dtd. 2/1/2020 of this Court, on perusal of the available materials on record was also not inclined to consider the bail application at that stage and dismissed the same on 10/2/2020.