Ranjit Choudhury v. The State of Assam

ORDER

19.06.2024 Heard Mr. N. Sarkar, learned counsel for the applicant and also heard Mr. P.S. Lahkar, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, Assam, appearing for the State respondent.

¶2This application, under Section 438 Cr.P.C. is preferred by the applicant, namely, Ranjit Choudhury, who has been apprehending arrest in connection with Cyber P.S. Case Page No.# 2/3 No.12/2023 under Section 120B/419/420 IPC, read with Section 66C/66D of the I.T. Act along with Section 409/468/471 IPC, for granting of pre-arrest bail.

¶3It is to be noted here that the above noted case has been registered on the basis of an FIR lodged by one Papu Gogoi, Circle Officer, Dispur Revenue Circle, on 02.11.2023. The essence of allegation made in the aforesaid FIR is that as per direction of the Deputy Commissioner, the informant had detected unauthorised access of CO login (gogoi1234) of Dispur Revenue Circle and he had submitted a detail report to the District Commissioner on 01.11.2023. Then, it has come to his notice that a mutation order was passed online in Dharitree portal on 05.10.2023 in Case No.MET/DIS/2022-23/96042/OMUT against a deed bearing Sl.No.6268, dated 31.12.1995, wherein no offline case record and also the record of issuing any notice or order so passed was found to be available in his office. Then upon inquiry, Lat Mandal reported that neither field verification nor any report was submitted in respect of the referred mutation case. Thereafter, the informant officially communicated to the DIO, NIC, Kamrup(M), requesting for login history details from from 01.10.2023 to 26.10.2023 and he found that an IP address 10.177.88.65 had record of login/logout history of 52 times from 04.10.2023 to

26.10.2023 and 2 times on 10.10.2023 in IP address 10.177.88.58 and the said IP addresses were not from the official list of the 33 operational IP addresses of his office and the aforesaid 2 IP addresses are unauthorised and illegal and therefore, the same required detail investigation and expert examination.

¶4Mr. Sarkar, learned counsel for the applicant submits that the applicant was granted the privilege of interim pre-arrest bail, vide order dated 22.12.2023 and pursuant to the said order, the applicant had appeared before the I.O. and cooperating with the investigating agency and his statement is also recorded and therefore, a contention is being made to make the interim order dated 22.12.2023, absolute, in the same terms and conditions.

¶5On the other hand, Mr. P.S. Lahkar, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, Assam, has produced the case diary before this Court and confirmed appearance of the applicant Page No.# 3/3 before the I.O. However, Mr. Lahkar submits that the I.O. has collected sufficient incriminating materials against the present applicant and therefore, Mr. Lahkar has opposed the petition.

¶6Having heard the submission of learned Advocates of both sides, I have carefully gone through the petition and the documents placed on record and also perused the case diary with the assistance of Mr. Lahkar, learned Additional P.P.

¶7It is not in dispute that after grant of the privilege of interim pre-arrest bail the applicant had appeared before the I.O. and cooperating with the investigating agency. It also appears from the case diary that the I.O. has recorded his statement and also it appears that the I.O. has achieved substantial progress in the investigation of the case. In view of the aforementioned facts and circumstances and also in view of the nature and gravity of the offence and the punishment prescribed for the same, this Court is of the view that custodial interrogation of the applicant seems to be not warranted here in this case and therefore, the interim order dated 22.12.2023, is hereby made absolute, in the same terms and conditions. Case diary be returned.

¶8In terms of above, this anticipatory bail application stands disposed of. Comparing Assistant Sd/- Robin Phukan JUDGE

Page No.# 1/3 GAHC010289452023 THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH) Case No. : AB/4286/2023 RANJIT CHOUDHURY S/O LT. PROMOD CHOUDHURY R/O HOUSE NO. 25 A RAJGHAR ROAD BYE LANE 11 P.S. CHANDMARI DIST. KAMRUP (M) ASSAM PIN 781005 VERSUS THE STATE OF ASSAM REP BY THE PP, ASSAM Advocate for the Petitioner : MR. K N CHOUDHURY Advocate for the Respondent : PP, ASSAM BEFORE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ROBIN PHUKAN