Om Prakash Singh Chauhan v. State of U.P

Court No. - 72 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION U/S 438 CR.P.C. No. - 11800 of 2023 Applicant :- Om Prakash Singh Chauhan Opposite Party :- State of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Indra Jit Singh,Anshul Kumar Gupta,Sr. Advocate Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Krishan Pahal,J.

¶1List has been revised. Heard Sri O.P. Singh, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Indra Jit Singh, learned counsel for the applicant as well as Sri R.M. Yadav, learned A.G.A. for the State and also perused the record.

¶2The present anticipatory bail application has been filed on behalf of the applicant in F.I.R./Case Crime No. 0379 of 2023, under Sections 420, 467, 468, 406, 323, 504, 506 IPC, Police Station Panki, District West (Commissionerate Kanpur Nagar), with a prayer to enlarge him on anticipatory bail.

¶3As per prosecution story, the applicant is Registered Power of Attorney holder of the property, which was in the name of Raj Bahadur Singh and Shyam Sundar Singh. The applicant is stated to have entered into an agreement to sell off the said property and taken Rs. 50 lakhs as consideration. The agreement was registered before the Registrar concerned on 11.11.2020. Subsequent to it, the parties are stated to have fallen apart and the applicant is stated to have neither got the sale deed executed in favour of the informant nor returned the amount except the petty amount of Rs. 10 lakhs.

¶4Learned Senior Counsel for the applicant has stated that the applicant is maliciously being prosecuted in the present case due to ulterior motive and has the apprehension of his arrest. The applicant has nothing to do with the said offence as alleged by the prosecution. Learned Senior Counsel has next stated that the matter of civil nature has been converted into criminal one by the informant. Learned Senior Counsel has placed reliance on Annexure-2, which is the registered Power of Attorney to the applicant, where the applicant has every right to agreement to sell besides other rights. It is further stated that the applicant is the bonafide person and has not acted beyond the general Power of Attorney in his favour.

¶5Several other submissions have been made on behalf of the applicant to demonstrate the falsity of the allegations made against him. The circumstances which, as per counsel, led to the false implication of the applicant have also been touched upon at length. It is further submitted that the applicant has no criminal antecedents. In case, the anticipatory bail application of the applicant is allowed, he will not misuse the liberty and shall cooperate with trial.

¶6On the other hand, learned A.G.A. has vehemently opposed the prayer for grant of anticipatory bail but unable to dispute the submissions raised by the learned counsel for the applicant and also the fact that the applicant has no criminal history.

¶7On due consideration to the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties and in view of the law laid down by the Apex Court in the case of "Sushila Aggarwal Vs. State (NCT of Delhi)-2020 SCC online SC 98", the applicant is entitled to be granted anticipatory bail in this case.

¶8Without expressing any opinion upon ultimate merits of the case either ways which may adversely affect the trial of the case, the anticipatory bail application of the applicant is allowed.

¶9In the event of arrest of the applicant, Om Prakash Singh Chauhan involved in the aforesaid case crime number, shall be released on anticipatory bail till the conclusion of trial on furnishing a personal bond with two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the Presiding Officer/Court Concerned, with the conditions that:- i. that the applicant shall make himself available for interrogation by a police officer as and when required; ii. that the applicant shall not, directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer or tamper with the evidence; iii. that the applicant shall not leave India without previous permission of the court; iv. that the applicant shall not tamper with the evidence during the trial; v. that the applicant shall not pressurize/ intimidate the prosecution witness; vi. that the applicant shall appear before the trial court on each date fixed unless personal presence is exempted;

¶10In case of breach of any of the above conditions, the court concerned shall have the liberty to cancel the bail granted to the applicant.

¶11It is made clear that observations made in granting anticipatory bail to the applicant shall not in any way affect the learned trial Judge in forming his independent opinion based on the testimony of the witnesses. (Justice Krishan Pahal) Order Date :- 7.11.2023 Shalini High Court of Judicature at Allahabad