The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to Ramesh Sanka, former CEO of Real Estate developer IREO Residences Company Pvt Ltd, in a case related to stealing of documents and criminal breach of trust.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Sandeep Moudgil last week denied anticipatory bail to Sanka and another accused in the case, Sumit Kumar, on the grounds of ‘grave and serious’ nature of allegations, including cheating and extorting money in conspiracy with each other.
The High Court referred to the Supreme Court verdict of 2018 in the Rohit Tondon vs Directorate of Enforcement case, which held that economic offenders need to be treated differently as a class apart.
Justice Moudgil observed that prima facie, the case involved serious allegations of huge financial transactions, which needed to be treated differently.
He further took note of the fact that other co-accused involved in the commissioning of offence, namely Vivek Sehgal, was in judicial custody and has not been granted regular bail so far.
As per the High Court, the investigation was at a nascent stage, which could not be proceeded further until or unless the petitioners were taken into custody.
It further observed that delay in investigation due to non-cooperation of the petitioners would only benefit the accused alone due to its non-completion.
As per the FIR, Sumit Kumar, working in connivance with Ramesh Sanka (former Chief Operating Officer of IREO Grace Realtech Limited) and another co-accused Vivek Sehgal as a partner in Ghar Samadhan LLP, alleged to be a limited liability partnership set up on January 15, 2020, had indulged in cheating and extortion, causing a great loss to the complainant.
Advocate Sukant Gupta appeared for Sumit, while Advocates Mansur Ali, Hemant Bassi, Raj Kumar Singh, Aashima Narula and Imran A. Ali represented Sanka.
The complainant was represented by Haryana AAG Gagandeep Singh Chhina, along with Advocates Anil Mehta, Anirudh Sharma and Rahul Gautam.
Sanka had moved the High Court against an order of the Gurugram court, which denied him anticipatory bail in January this year.
Earlier on January 2, Additional Sessions Judge of Gurugram, Ved Parkash Sirohi, had denied anticipatory bail to Sanka. The court mentioned the Supreme Court verdict of 2022 in case of Sumitha Pradeep vs Arun Kumar C.K. and Anr and held that even if custodial interrogation was not required or necessitated, by itself, cannot be the ground to grant anticipatory bail.