23crn2485-10 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MUMBAI CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.2485 OF 2010 Manjeet Singh Arora. .. Applicant. Vs. The State of Maharashtra. .. Respondent. .... Mr.M.S. Mohite, Advocate i/b. Mr.Ashish Sawant, Advocate for the applicant. Mr.P.S. Hingorani, A.P.P. for the State. .... CORAM : A.R.JOSHI, J. DATED : 15th JUNE, 2010 P.C. 1. Heard rival submissions at length on this anticipatory bail application preferred by the applicant apprehending his arrest in C.R. No.316 of 2009 registered with Pimpri police station, District - Pune for the offences punishable under Sections 408, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 474 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code. 2. It appears that the present applicant is running a job 23crn2485-10 2 placement establishment by name MSA Consultancy Services at Pune and is sending various job seekers to various companies with whom the said applicant has understanding by way of written agreements. 3. The complaint in the present matter is lodged by the officials of one Spico Technologies Pvt. Ltd., MIDC, Chinchwad, Pune. FIR was registered on the said complaint being FIR No.316 of 2009 for the offences mentioned above. The allegations are that about eight employees were appointed at different posts by the said Spico Technologies from the year 2005 to 2007. At the time of giving employment to such job seekers inspection of various documents as to the educational qualifications, age, experience and previous salary, was the work given to one specified officer of the said company and the said officer was Vihanga Bhosle. 4. Curiously enough, in the present matter some time in May, 2009 an anonymous telephone call was received by the 23crn2485-10 3 Purchase Department of the company mentioning that one of their employees by name Pravinkumar had obtained the said job showing his educational qualification as B.E. (Mechanical),whereas in practice he has passed only Bachelor of Arts (B.A.). On knowing such information through telephone, enquiries were made and the documents produced by the said employee were scrutinized and certain discrepancies were found. On noticing this, the documents produced by various other candidates and employed by the company on the post of Engineer were scrutinized and almost eight other persons were shortlisted who had either produced forged pay-slips or forged experience certificates or forged educational qualification documents. During scrutiny of the record of the company, it was revealed that the Special Officer appointed by the company for scrutiny of the documents prior to employment, had sent emails to the establishment of the present applicant asking for the bill for sending the concerned employees, whose documents were 23crn2485-10 4 found forged and fabricated. It was also found out during such scrutiny of papers that the company of the present applicant had sent the bill to the complainant company and even obtained the payment by account payee cheque. The said payment was for Rs.1,01,999/-. This happened somewhere by end of December, 2008 / early months of 2009. 5. On lodging of the FIR, as above, all those employees who had secured the jobs in the company were arrested including the Special Officer Smt.Vihanga Bhosale. As stated by the learned A.P.P. , all the said associated accused are now released on bail. 6. In such circumstances, though the investigation is still pending, considering the alleged role as to one of the conspirators with said Smt.Vihanga Bhosale, in the opinion of this Court the custodial interrogation of the present applicant is not warranted. Otherwise also, the payment made to the establishment of the applicant is by way of an account payee 23crn2485-10 5 cheque and evidence to that effect can be gathered by the Investigating Officer. Even as per the allegations in the FIR itself, there is specific mention that the said employees who secured employment on fabricated documents were not the employees sent by the establishment of the present applicant. 7. In the result, on certain conditions of attendance and cooperation to the Investigating Officer during the investigation, present application can be allowed. Hence the order : :: O R D E R :: [i] Criminal Application No.2485 of 2010 for anticipatory bail is allowed. [ii] In the event of arrest of the applicant - Manjeet Singh Arora in C.R. No.316 of 2009 registered by Pimpri police station, District - Pune, he shall be released on bail on his executing a P.R. bond in the sum of Rs.25,000/- (Rs.Twenty Five Thousand Only) with 23crn2485-10 6 one surety for the like amount. [iii] In the event of arrest and availing of bail, as above, the applicant shall attend Pimpri police station, District - Pune on every Tuesday and Friday between 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. till completion of the investigation. [iv] Applicant is further directed to assist the investigation and immediately deposit an amount of Rs. 1,01,999/- with the Investigating Officer after obtaining receipt thereof. The learned trial Court which shall deal with the matter shall decide regarding disposal of the said amount according to law at the end of the trial. (A.R.JOSHI,J.)