BRIJESH SINGLA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners Brijesh Singla, Lokesh Singla and Bupesh Singla sons of Veer Bhan, proprietors M/s Pappal Udyog, M/s SVB Woollen Mills and M/s Sham Associates, Panipat, respectively, seek anticipatory bail in case FIR No. 257 dated 28.5.1998 registered under Sections 420/409/467/468/471/120-B of the Indian Penal Code Police Station Chandani Bagh, Panipat (State of Haryana). The petitioners alleged that they are the sole proprietors of their respective business concerns mentioned above and are third in generation of businessmen dealing in wool and are big importers of wool. For importing this wool they are dealing with Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd.

(2.) ACCORDINGLY to the averments made in the F.I.R. the petitioners in connivance with Sh. Sunil Kumar Gupta, Manager of the said Bank managed to get the Letters of Credit for importing wool without any adequate or appropriate security and thus committed fraud and cheating with the Bank which had to make the payments of the imported goods. A complaint in this case was filed by Shri K.L. Kaul, Area Manager, Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited, Jalandhar City. Sunil Kumar Gupta, Manager of Foreign Exchange Branch of the said Bank prepared some forged Letters of Credit (LOC), in alleged collusion with the petitioners and thereby embezzled an amount of Rs. 124.93 lacs and caused a loss of that amount to Jammu and Kashmir Bank. It was alleged that some other documents were also forged for committing embezzlement of the amount in question. According to the averments made in the complaint only vouchers were passed and entries were made in the debit. However, no entry was available in the Bank. Some of the documents which were alleged to be in possession of the said Manager Sh. Sunil Kumar Gupta and some of the documents were in possession of the present petitioners/accused. The details of some of the transactions were mentioned in the F.I.R.

(3.) THE learned counsel for the respondent No. 2 Jammu and Kashmir Bank Shri R.S. Ghai, learned Senior Advocate, has contended that in this case not a single document is available with the Bank where the forgery was committed by Shri Sunil Kumar Gupta, Manger who acted in connivance with the petitioners and thereby causing loss to the Bank, for a sum of Rs. 1.24 crore. The investigation of the case is still in progress and custodial investigation would lead to more details and the various documents are to be recovered and examined.