The Allahabad High Court has rejected the bail application of a lawyer, accused of cheating and forging property documents
A single-judge bench of Justice Krishan Pahal passed this order while hearing a criminal misc anticipatory bail application filed by Princess Mahi @ Saher Naqvi.
The anticipatory bail application has been filed on behalf of the applicant in Case under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 506 IPC at Police Station Colonelganj, District Prayagraj with a prayer to enlarge her on anticipatory bail.
The FIR was lodged by Rakesh Kumar, an ex-Army man, alleging the applicant Princes Mahi @ Saher Naqvi had taken Rs 20 lakh from him in 2018 to get his wife a job in a junior high school. She had even introduced the informant to one Rajeev Tripathi at the office of BSA.
The applicant is stated to have neither returned the amount nor got the said job for his wife and she kept on dilly dallying with him.
On 1.1.2019, the applicant is stated to have taken Rs 50 lakh from the informant in lieu of a sale of a 200 square metre plot of NK Mukherji Marg, Civil Lines, Allahabad. The said amount of Rs 50 lakh was transferred from the account of Kchipra Business Solution Pvt Ltd of State Bank, Branch Sub-Area Cantt, Prayagraj to the bank account of the applicant through NEFT.
It transpired later on that the documents of the said plot are fake and the said forgery has been committed by the applicant in conspiracy with other members of the family. The applicant is stated to have fleeced and fooled the informant on one pretext or other and even threatened him.
The applicant in-person has pressed the anticipatory bail application on the following grounds:-
(i) that she has been falsely implicated in the case and has nothing to do with the said offence. The allegations with respect to the supply of Rs 20 lakh are per se false as there is nothing on record to suggest that any amount has been withdrawn from any account or transferred to the applicant. The said transaction is in cash, which is false.
(ii) that the final report (charge-sheet) has been submitted and the cognizance by trial court has been taken. The FIR has been lodged against all the family members just to harass them.
(iii) that after registration of FIR, the applicant and co-accused person Rizwan Ali (father of the applicant) had approached the Court in Criminal Misc Writ Petition, in which ad-interim protection was granted to them vide order dated 29.1.2020.
(iv) that after the submission of the final report (charge-sheet), the applicant had challenged it by filing a Criminal Misc Application U/s 482 CrPC and prayed for quashing the entire charge-sheet including the summoning order dated 12.1.2022.
(v) that transfer of Rs 50 lakh to her account is admitted, but the said amount has been transferred from the account of the company Kchipra Business Solutions Pvt Ltd and the matter is between applicant and the said company, that too is civil in nature and the informant, who is a stranger to the said transaction, has converted it into a criminal case which is not sustainable in the eyes of law.
(vi) that the agreement between the applicant and the informant is a notarized document and is not maintainable in the eyes of law.
(vii) that the applicant is an Advocate registered at Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh since 2019. She has also argued at length that when the applicant had cheated the informant to the tune of Rs 20 lakh, then there was no occasion for the informant to transfer such a hefty amount to her account, as such the allegations leveled in the FIR are false.
(viii) that she does not have any criminal antecedents to her credit, except the two cases which have been lodged against her regarding the same incident. She has pressed hard that she being an Advocate and lady is being harassed and she may be enlarged on anticipatory bail.
Counsel for the informant has argued that the applicant has admitted the fact that an amount of Rs 50 lakh has been transferred to her and the very fact has also been mentioned in the order of the Court.
Counsel has further stated that the applicant had misused the process of the court by taking it’s refuge at the drop of the hat as in addition to filing petition U/s 482 Cr.P.C challenging the final report (charge-sheet), she has even filed a criminal revision before this Court.
Counsel has further stated that the applicant had even filed a Writ Petition before the Apex Court under Article 32 of the Constitution of India seeking anticipatory bail, which was dismissed on the ground of alternate remedy being available to the applicant, although her anticipatory bail application was already rejected by the Sessions Court, Allahabad.
The Court noted that it is an admitted fact that the said amount of Rs 50 lakh has been transferred to the account of the applicant by the informant, who is the Director in company Kchipra Business Solution Pvt Ltd. The applicant is an Advocate and has argued the matter in person and has also admitted the fact of the said transfer of money to her account, but has stated that she is unable to do so as she is facing a case under Section 138 NI Act at Telangana, as such she is not sure as to whom she has to repay the said amount.
“After hearing the parties, going through the evidence on record and taking into consideration the fact that a huge amount of Rs 50 lakh has been transferred to the account of applicant, I do not find it a fit case for grant of anticipatory bail to the applicant,” the Court observed while rejecting the anticipatory bail application.