- 1 - VPH IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION No. 380 OF 2008 Purushottam D. Kale Applicant vs. The State of Maharashtra Respondents Mr. P. B. Shah, Advocate for the applicant. Mr. D. P. Adsule, APP for the respondent. CORAM : D. G. KARNIK, J. DATE : MARCH 13, 2008. PC 1. Heard. 2. By this application, applicant seeks pre-arrest bail in connection C.R. No. 6/2008 registered with Ghodegaon Police Station for the alleged offence punishable under section 406, 420, 470,471, 468 read with section 34 of I.P.C. 3. Prosecution case is that the applicant who is owner of the property in question sold his property to Ghodegaon Nagari Patsanstha Maryadit, Ghodegaon, taluka Ambegaon, district Pune (for short the "Society") of which he was a - 2 - director, at an inflated price of Rs.24,68,000/-. 4. Without prejudice to this contention that price was not inflated and that he had not played any role in purchase of the property by the Society, the applicant submitted that he was willing to deposit Rs.25 lakhs in the Court, pending the conclusion of the trial. Accordingly, by an order dated 14th February 2008 applicant was permitted to deposit Rs.25,00,000/-. The applicant has deposited the same in this Court. In view of this, applicant can be granted bail. Hence, I pass the following order. _O_R_D_E_R_ (i) In the event of arrest of the applicant in connection with the aforesaid crime, the applicnt shall be released on bail on furnishing personal bond of Rs.15,000/- without surety (in view of the fact that Rs.25 lakhs are already deposited by the applicant in this court), subject to condition that the applicant shall not make any inducements or threats to the prosecution witnesses and shall not interfere with the prosecution evidence. (ii) The amount of Rs.25 lakhs deposited in this court - 3 - shall be invested in the State Bank of India or any nationalised bank initially for a period of 13 months, to be renewed for the like periods till further orders. (iii) This order for bail shall come to an end after the charge-sheet is filed whereupon the applicant may, if he so desires, apply for bail to the trial Court and the trial Court shall decide the same on merits, taking into consideration the fact that Rs.25 lakhs have already been deposited in this Court. Sd/- [ D. G. KARNIK, J.]