In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh ...... Criminal Misc. No.M-24264 of 2010 ..... Date of decision:13.9.2010 Avtar Kaur alias Taro .....Petitioner v. State of Punjab .....Respondent .... Present: Mr. Sunil Chadha, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. V.P.S. Sidhu, Assistant Advocate General, Punjab for the respondent-State. ..... S.S. Saron, J. Heard learned counsel for the parties. The petitioner seeks pre-arrest bail in a case registered against her on 24.7.2010 on the complaint of Malkiat Chand for the offences under Sections 420 and 406 IPC. The complainant has alleged that the petitioner had taken Rs.6 Lakhs from him for sending his son to Korea. The son of the complainant was sent to Singapore and Malaysia on a tourist Visa and he came back. Thereafter, he was sent to Korea on a tourist Visa by the petitioner. He remained in Jail for six days. On the return of his son, the complainant demanded his money which the petitioner has not paid. Learned counsel for the petitioner has contended that the money is alleged to be taken from the petitioner in the year 2006, however, nothing is mentioned as regards the date when the money was paid. It is submitted that the petitioner in fact has been falsely implicated because FIR Cr. Misc. No.M-24264 of 2010 [2] No.200 dated 29.7.2009 (Annexure-P.2) was registered at Police Station Banga, District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar on the complaint of Seema Rani for the offences under Sections 406 and 420 IPC. Seema Rani in the said complaint has alleged that the present petitioner had taken Rs.3 Lakhs from her and got a fake Visa issued for Korea. In fact, said Seema Rani is related to the present petitioner. It is submitted that the husband of Seema Rani, namely, Roshan Lal is brother of Surinder Pal. The wife of Surinder Pal is Nirmal Kaur and Nirmal Kaur is the real niece of Smt. Channo. Smt. Channo is the wife of Malkiat Chand-complainant. Therefore, it is submitted that the present FIR has been lodged to effect recovery in the earlier FIR (Annexure-P.2). In response, learned counsel for the State has submitted that the petitioner is not really a travel agent but she has been duping people for sending them to Korea as her husband is in Korea. It is submitted that Seema Rani complainant in the FIR (Annexure-P.2) was jailed in Korea and the son of the complainant in the present FIR (Annexure-P.1) was also jailed in Korea. This goes to show that they had indeed gone to Korea on the Visa facilitated by the petitioner. After giving my thoughtful consideration to the matter, it may be noticed that the petitioner is accused in two FIRs. The earlier one that was registered on 29.7.2009 (Annexure-P.2) and the present one is registered on 24.7.2010. In both the FIRs the petitioner had facilitated the Visas for the travel of Seema Rani and the son of the complainant in the present case. The fact is that both of them had to spend some time in jail on account of the visas facilitated by the petitioner. Therefore, at this stage it cannot be said that the allegations are entirely false. The matter would Cr. Misc. No.M-24264 of 2010 [3] require to be considered and investigated by the Police. The fact that the husband of the petitioner is in Korea would indeed give some semblance to the fact that she has been indulging in duping persons for sending them to Korea. Therefore, the custodial interrogation of the petitioner would be required. Learned counsel for the State has also submitted that the custody of the petitioner is required for the recovery of the amount. In the facts and circumstances, no ground for grant of pre-arrest bail is made out. The criminal miscellaneous petition is accordingly dismissed. However, in case the petitioner surrenders before the Police within two days of the receipt of copy of this order, her application for regular bail shall be considered by the concerned Court expeditiously and preferably within two days after the period of Police remand, if any. September 13, 2010. (S.S. Saron) Judge *hsp*