1 mpt IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 2779 OF 2007 Pandurang Ishwara Rachkar & ors. .. Applicants versus State of Maharashtra .. Respondent ... Mr.Sanjeev P. Kadam for the applicant. Mr.Manoj Kadam for intervenor. Mr.K.V. Saste APP for the State. CORAM : D.G.KARNIK, J DATED : 7th February 2008 P.C.: 1. Heard learned counsel for the applicant and learned APP for the State and Mr.Kadam for the intervenor. 2. By this application, the applicants seek pre-arrest bail in connection with a crime registered at Akluj police station under C.R. No.113 of 2007 for the alleged offence punishable u/s.406, 420, 467 2 r/w section 34 of the IPC. 3. The applicants are partners of M/s.P.I. Rachkar & Company which had borrowed money from Shankarrao Mohite Patil Sahakari Bank Ltd., (for short ’the Bank’) for the purpose of contract taken by them for executing certain works in Krishna Khore project of the government. The applicants had given an authority to the Bank to collect the payments on their behalf and had given letter to the government to pay contract bills directly to the Bank. The applicants gave a letter to the government written purportedly on the letter head of the bank and purportedly signed by the Manager of the Bank requesting the government to make the payment directly to the applicants’ firm. Accordingly, the government paid the bills of the work done by them to the applicants’ firm directly. An FIR was lodged by the Manager of the Bank alleging that the letter given by the applicant was not written by the Bank but the letter head as well as signature of the Manager thereon was forged. The Bank alleged that by forging the letter head and signature of the Manager, the applicants have committed offence of forgery and cheating. 4. The applicants applied for anticipatory bail 3 before the Sessions Court. Initially interim bail was granted. However, after hearing, the application for bail was rejected. Therefore, the applicants have approached this court for anticipatory bail. Vide order dated 23rd August 2007, this court granted interim protection to the applicants which is till today. Except for the allegation made in the FIR dated 23rd June 2007 no material is produced on record to show that the letter head and the signature of the Branch Manager on the letter ware forged. Though more than six months have passed, no opinion of handwriting expert was obtained either by the Bank or by the police. 4. I have also heard the learned counsel for the Bank. Neither he nor the A.P.P. were able to place on record any material to show that the allegations made by the Bank that the letterhead of the Bank and signature of the Manager on the letter were forged. Thus there is no prima facie material connecting the applicant to the alleged crime. The applicants are entitled to an anticipatory bail. 5. Hence, I pass the following order:- O R D E R O R D E R O R D E R 4 . In the event of arrest of the applicants or any of them, each of them shall be released on bail on personal bond of Rs.15,000/- with one surety of the like amount subject to the condition that the applicants shall not make any inducement or give threats to any of the prosecution witnesses and shall not tamper with the prosecution evidence. . The applicants shall attend the concerned police station initially once a week for four weeks on every Monday between 10.00 a.m. and 12 noon and co-operate with the investigation and shall thereafter attend the concerned police station once a month between 1st and 5th of every British Calendar month till the filing of the charge sheet. . This order shall come to an end after charge-sheet is filed whereupon the applicants nay, if they so desire, apply to the appropriate court for regular bail. If such an application is made it shall be considered by the court on its own merits without being in any way influenced by any of the observations made in this order which are only prima facie. (D.G. KARNIK, J)