CRM-M19223 of 2009 (O&M) 1 In the High Court for the States of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. Decided on Aug 18,2009. Gurvinder Singh -- Petitioner vs. State of Punjab --Respondent. CORAM:HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN Present: Mr.Gautam Dutt,Advocate, for the petitioner Mr.Ranbir Singh Rawat,A.A.G.Punjab, for the respondent/State. Rakesh Kumar Jain, J: The petitioner has applied for anticipatory bail apprehending his arrest in case registered vide FIR No.258 dated 04.7.2009 under Sections 419,420,468,471,120-B IPC at Police Station, Civil Lines, Amritsar. The aforesaid FIR has been registered on the complaint of Himanshu Thapliyal, Assistant Manager Operation Planet, Edu Pvt. Limited, 101, Greenwood Plaza, Greenwood City Sector 45, Gurgaon. In brief, the allegations are that M/S.Planet Edu.Pvt. Limited is having its Corporate office at Sector 45-Gurgoan and has its branch office at 41, Feroz Gandhi Market Ludhiana (Punjab) and is engaged in the business of conducting and facilitating International English Language Test CRM-M19223 of 2009 (O&M) 2 System (in short,'IELTS') all over the country, through its office and test centres on behalf of IDP, IELTS, Australia. It is further alleged that on 4.7.2009, IELTS conducted a test at Hotel MK International, Ranjeet Avenue, Amritsar. At that time, persons namely, Shikha Rai, Sidarth Sehgal, Surjit Singh, Shivani Sharma and Sorab Dinkar Verma came to the registration desk for admission for test and submitted their photographs and signed the terms and conditions of the IELTS Examination. They obtained admit tickets for taking the examination. The officers responsible for taking the examination became suspicious qua the genuineness of the passports shown to them. After scrutiny, it was found that the above said persons have tampered with the passports by putting their own photographs on them in order to take examination on behalf of some other persons by way of impersonation. Immediately, the aforesaid persons were apprehended. Their passports were taken into custody and they were handed over to the police. It was then found that the aforesaid persons were impersonating the candidates namely Ms. Gurdish Kaur Gill, Gurvinder Singh, Ranjit Singh, Rajwinder Kaur and Navdeep. It is pertinent to mention here that before coming to this Court, the petitioner had applied for anticipatory bail before the learned Addl.Sessions Judge, Amritsar, which was dismissed on 13.7.2009 on the ground that the petitioner is the beneficiary of the whole game of cheating as test was being taken by those persons who are apprehended at the spot by tampering their passports which were naturally handed over to them by the petitioner. Learned counsel for the petitioner has, inter-alia, argued that the petitioner had no occasion to be involved in this case as he had already CRM-M19223 of 2009 (O&M) 3 passed the test on 10.2.2009. On the contrary, learned counsel for the State has argued that the recovery of passport of the petitioner from Rahul Singla who was apprehended at the spot speaks volume of his involvement. Even if the petitioner had earlier taken the test but since his score was 5 which is required to be 7, therefore, in order to improve his score/ much-less qualification for the purpose of getting admission in the institute at Australia, the petitioner had hired the services of impersonator Rahul Singla and has actively participated in this crime. Thus, keeping in view the seriousness of the offence and the fact that the investigation in the matter is required to unearth the big racket which is in operation, wherein fraud of such magnitude is being played, I do not find any exceptional circumstance for grant of anticipatory bail. Hence the bail application is hereby dismissed. Aug 18,2009 (Rakesh Kumar Jain) RR Judge