CRM-M-24432-2011 (O&M) [ 1 ] :::::::: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRM-M-24432-2011 (O&M) Date of decision:19.08.2011. Vipin Mahendiratta ...Petitioner Versus State of Haryana ...Respondent CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN Present: Mr. Ram Bilas Gupta, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Ajay Jain, Addl. A.G., Haryana. ***** RAKESH KUMAR JAIN, J. This is a petition for grant of pre-arrest bail in a case registered vide FIR No.9 dated 19.01.2011, under Sections 408, 420, 467, 468, 471, 201, 120-B IPC at Police Station Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, District Gurgaon. The FIR is registered by the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax (Head Office), Circle-II, Gurgaon regarding loss of government record of Yogesh, 36 Luxmi Bazar, Gurgaon for the assessment years 2007-08 and 2008-09. It is alleged that the assessment record of the aforesaid Yogesh has been stolen from the office almirah of Dharampal, Income Tax Inspector, in the night/morning of 12/13.01.2011. During investigation, Ajit Singh, a dismissed peon from the Income Tax Department, was arrested whose real brother Rajpal is also working as Peon in the same office. During his interrogation, he had disclosed that the alleged files have been kept in the house of his friend at Ghaziabad, who happens to be the petitioner, who was working as a Computer Operator with the Income Tax Officer Anil Goel. The petitioner had applied for bail before the learned Court below which was dismissed on 21.07.2011. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner has been falsely implicated on the statement of the co-accused. He was driver of the Income Tax Officer Anil Goel and had met with an accident on 30.12.2010, therefore, CRM-M-24432-2011 (O&M) [ 2 ] :::::::: there is no question of his involvement in the theft of the files. On the other hand, learned State Counsel has argued that a PAN Card No.AEUPY7862C of Yogesh Kumar son of Mahesh Kumar, resident of 162D, Subhash Nagar, Gurgaon was prepared fraudulently for the purpose of income tax refund. The original of opening form and ID in respect of above mentioned PAN card was recovered during investigation from which it was found that it was issued in May 2010, whereas two refund files for the assessment years 2007-08 (`7,21,311/-) and 2008-09 (`7,39,750/-) were prepared and submitted to the Income Tax Office in the name of Yogesh Kumar, but photo on the Pan Card form was of Mohit. The files were sent to the Income Tax Inspector Dharampal but in the morning of 13.01.2011, the files were found to have been stolen. Accused Yogesh Kumar and Mohit were arrested on 06.06.2011. Thereafter, accused Ajit Singh was arrested on 07.06.2011 who had confessed that he was employed as Peon from 1998 to 2009 in the Income Tax Department and was dismissed from his job due to deposit of wrong file in the dispatch and was very well aware of the income tax files. He also disclosed that since April 2010, Vipin Mahendiratta (petitioner) was working as a private Computer Operator with Income Tax Officer Anil Goel who had alleged to have asked him to bring a PAN number with false address on which he will prepare a false refund file and will get the same cleared by the Income Tax Officer in routine. On which, Ajit Singh alongwith Mohit prepared a fake PAN card as per plan of the petitioner and the files for refund of around `16,00,000/- were prepared which were seized by the Department on 12.01.2011 but were stolen on 13.01.2011. The said Ajit Singh had confessed that those files are kept at the rented house of the petitioner at Ghaziabad and can be recovered therefrom. Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of this case and the fact that the alleged files have not been recovered so far and custodial interrogation of the petitioner could further give lead to other similar cases in which the petitioner alongwith other persons might have committed similar fraud with the Income Tax Department, I do not find it to be a fit case for grant of pre-arrest bail. Hence, the present petition is hereby dismissed. August 19, 2011 (RAKESH KUMAR JAIN) vinod* JUDGE