ANJANI KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was one of the three office bearers of Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange. This is the second bail application filed by the petitioner. The earlier one was disposed of on 7-1-2003 giving liberty to the petitioner to move the Court below once again in the, event there was any changed circumstance. According to Mr. Bijan Ray, learned senior Advocate, after submission or final charge-sheet, the petitioner moved the Sessions Judge, Khurda once again. The prayer to release the petitioner on bail having been turned down by the learned Sessions Judge, he has approached this Court once again.

(2.) Mr. Ray, learned senior Advocate forcefully submitted that the petitioner is a highly qualified person and hails from a respectable family. He had absolutely no nexus with the alleged occurrence and only on the basis of extra-judicial confessions made by some harden criminals, after a lapse of 7 years, the petitioner was arrested. There is not a single iota of evidence connecting the petitioner with the crime and that he has been victimised by a deep rooted conspiracy and it is a fit case where he should be released on bail.

(3.) For appreciating the submissions of Mr. Ray, some of the facts would be necessary to be discussed. Admittedly the petitioner was the Treasurer, Shri Arun Kumar Giridhar was the Vice-President and Shri Tulsidar Bhayana was the President of Bhubaneswar stock exchange. It is alleged that one Binod Agarwal was one of the successful brokers of the said Stock Exchange. The prosecution case is that in course of business transaction, said Binod Agarwal could come to know about the clandestine and nefarious activities of the aforesaid three officer bearers. It is alleged that they had managed to float several forged and fake shares in Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange. As a consequence of the circulation of fake share certificates the said Binod Agarwal alleged to have sustained huge loss. It is also alleged by Binod that aforesaid three office bearers were jointly involved in several acts of malfeasance and misfeasance; one of such act being collection of huge amount for induction of new brokers/dealers to Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange. It is further alleged that Binod Agarwal having come to know about the aforesaid nefarious activities, threatened to bring the entire clandestine activities of the aforesaid three office bearers to light by disclosing the same. All the efforts made by the aforesaid three persons to gain over said Binod ended in vain. Having no other way out, they hatched a conspiracy to eliminate said Binod Agarwal. In consonance with the conspiracy, it is alleged, three professional killers of TATA were hired and on 30-3-1995 while deceased Binod was transacting some business in the office of the Stock Exchange, said three unidentified youths forcibly entered inside the office, one of them guarded the entrance, the other one assaulted Ramesh Behari Das, the Manager with the butt-end of his rivolver and the third one fired his rivolver at point-blank range thereby killing Binod. After completing the mission, the professional killers vanished from the scene. Ramesh Behari Das, the Manager, lodged an FIR at Laxmi Sagar Police Station and P.S. Case No. 29 was registered under Sections 452, 302, 307 read with Section 34, IPC and under Section 27 of the Arms Act. After preliminary investigation, on 9-4-99 the Inspector-in-charge of Laxmi Sagar Police Station submitted Final Report indicating "Fact true but no clue". Being aggrieved by the said investigation, Kantadevi Agarwal, the widow of the deceased Binod, approached the portals of this Court by filing a writ petition. While the matter stood thus, the investigation was handed over to the CID. The Crime Branch took up investigation of the case and moved a petition for permission under Section 173(8), Cr. P.C. before the learned S.D.J.M., Bhubaneswar for making further investigation into the case. The said prayer was allowed. The Investigating Officer of the Crime Branch, in course of investigation, could unveil the conspiracy alleged to have been hatched by the three office bearers named above to physically eliminate the deceased. The investigation revealed that the conspirators had hired one Raju Giri. Hidayat Khan and another, professional killers from TATA by paying Rs.1,00,000.00 to each and entrusted them the work of eliminating Binod Agarwal. After recording some statements and after completion of Investigation, the Investigating agency arrested the petitioner on 31-5-2002 and submitted charge-sheet (Final and Additional) on 7-1-2003.