In the High Court for the States of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. CRM-M19124 of 2009 (O&M) Decided on Aug 18,2009. Sachin Kumar -- Petitioner vs. State of Punjab --Respondent. CORAM:HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN Present: Mr.Kanwaljit Singh, Sr.Advocate, with Ms.Prachi Sharma,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 Thupliyal, 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-M19124 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 admission 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 and 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 the persons who were apprehended at the spot by tampering the passports which were handed over to them by the petitioner. Learned counsel for the petitioner has, inter-alia, argued that CRM-M19124 of 2009 (O&M) -3- neither the petitioner is named in the FIR nor he is working with the complainant company . It is further submitted that after doing his MBA, the petitioner once joined as Assistant Manager (Business Development) with the complainant company, but he resigned from that job on 29.6.2009. It is further submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner worked with the complainant company for the period between 6.10.2008 to 29.6.2009, whereas the test for IELTS was held on 4.7.2009 at Amritsar. He further submits that the petitioner is neither the beneficiary nor the impersonator. Notice of motion was issued in this case and arrest was stayed. Learned counsel for the State has argued that as per the police record, five persons, namely Dinkar Verma, Rahul Singla, Amar Pal, Arvinder Pal Singh and Anna Kaushik were arrested with the forged passports while taking the IELTS examination. Out of the above, Dinkar Verma had impersonated Naveep Singh, Rahul Singla impersonated Gurwinder Singh, Amarpal impersonated Rajwinder Kaur, Ravinder Pal Singh impersonated Ranjit Singh and Ms.Anna Kaushik impersonated Gurdish Kaur. It is further submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that it has come on record that the petitioner was the brain behind the aforesaid fraud because he was the person who had collected the passports and handed over them to the impersonators. Thus, keeping in view the seriousness of the offence and the fact that the investigation in the matter is required to unearth a 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. CRM-M19124 of 2009 (O&M) -4- Hence the bail application is hereby dismissed. Aug 18,2009 (Rakesh Kumar Jain) RR Judge