1 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.1818 OF 2011 IN C.R. NO.23 OF 2011 Mr. Sharad Kandalkar & Anr. .... Applicant Vs. The State of Maharashtra .... Respondent Mr. Girish Kulkarni i/by Mr. M.G. Shukla for applicants Mr. S.A. Shaikh, APP for State WITH CRIMINAL BAIL APPLICATION NO.1418 OF 2011 Mr. Santosh Prabhakar Bidoo .... Applicant Vs. The State of Maharashtra .... Respondent Mr. Rajendra Rathod for applicant Mrs. A.A. Mane APP for State 2 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011 WITH CRIMINAL BAIL APPLICATION NO.1858 OF 2011 Mr. Umesh Manohar Chamankar .... Applicant Vs. The State of Maharashtra .... Respondent Mr. Niranjan Mundargi for applicant. Mrs. G.P. Mulekar, APP for State. Coram : Smt. R.P.SondurBaldota, J. Date : 23rd December, 2011 P.C. 1. This is a common order on the above applications for bail. All the applicants are arraigned as accused in Special C.B.I. Case No.70 of 2011 arising out of C.R. No.23 of 2011 registered with A.C.P., Mumbai for commission of the offences punishable under Sections 13(1)(d), 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with Sections 465, 468, 471 read with Section 109 of Indian Penal code. The applicants in the 3 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011 first application are accused nos.8 and 7 respectively. The applicant in the second application is accused no.3 and the applicant in the third application is accused no.4. 2. The brief facts of the prosecution case are that a confidential information was received by A.C.B. Mumbai that the Chairman and Directors of Bhandari Co-operative Bank and the members of Rikshaw Hypothecation Committee of the bank, in connivance with rikshaw agents, during the period 2004 to 2010, sanctioned numerous loans without verifying the documents and on the basis of forged R.C. Books. Out of 1827 auto-rikshaw loans sanctioned, during the period, about 1133 loans were sanctioned, despite there being hypothecation charge of other financial institutions over the auto-rikshaws. The total amount disbursed in those 1133 loans was Rs. 13,33,05,000/- and an amount of Rs.12,22,79,485/- was outstanding against the loans as of 31st March 2011. It is alleged that the Chairman, President, Directors and officers of the bank did not verify documents of the auto-rikshaws, did 4 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011 not consider the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India for sanction of loans, failed to register hypothecation on the document of auto-rikshaw, sanctioned bogus loan proposals. In return all the persons got a certain percentage on the loan amount. It is further contended by the prosecution that in the years 2008, 2009 and 2010, the Reserve Bank of India had raised objections as regards the sanction of loans for auto-rikshaws during the audit of the bank. In the audit report, the Chief Executive Officer of the bank and all the directors were held responsible. Despite the objections, the sanction of loans on the basis of bogus R.C. books continued. The F.I.R. came to be registered on 17th July 2011 3. Applicant no.1 in the first application was the Chairman of the bank during the period 29th April 2005 to 9th June 2006 and the applicant no.2 was its director during the period. Both were arrested on 6th September 2011. The applicant in the second application is director of the bank and was arrested 5 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011 on 9th August 2011. The applicant in the third application was President of the bank and was arrested on 9th August 2011. The earlier applications of the applicants for bail have been rejected by the Sessions Court. The first application was rejected on the ground that the investigation at the relevant time was at the preliminary stage. The second application made, after filing of the chargesheet was rejected on the ground of magnitude of the amount involved in the case. The Sessions Court also felt that considering the positions held by the applicants in the bank, there is a possibility of they tampering with the prosecution evidence. 4. The learned counsel for all the applicants submit that since the chargesheet has already been filed and all the concerned documents seized by the police, there is no possibility of the applicants tampering with the prosecution evidence. The affidavit-in-reply filed on behalf of the State mentions that there is another offence registered against the directors of the bank i.e. C.R. No. 20 of 2011 in respect of 6 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011 fraud in the housing loans, where the modus operandi by the accused persons in sanction of loans is same. The fraud in respect of housing loans is to the extent of Rs.6.00 crores. The learned Special Court has permitted further investigation under Section 173(8) of Code of Criminal Procedure in C.R. No. 20 of 2011, which is in progress and the applicants are likely to be arrested in that case also. It has however been subsequently found that chargesheet in that C.R. has already been filed and applicant no.1 in the first application and the applicants in the other two applications have been arrested in the C.R. 5. The applicants have been in custody for sufficiently long time. Their further custody can hardly be of any useful purpose. All the relevant documents in the case have already been seized by the police. Hence there is no scope for tampering of the evidence. All applicants are also permanent residents of Mumbai. Hence, the order: 7 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011 O R D E R 1. The applicants are released on bail in the sum of Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees One lac only) each with one solvent surety each in the like amount. 2. The applicants will attend A.C.B. Worli, Mumbai as and when called upon by the office of A.C.B. 3. They shall not directly or indirectly, make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the cases so as to dissuade him for disclosing such facts to the Court or to any Police Officer. 4. The applicants shall not leave India without the previous permission of the Court. (Smt. R.P. SondurBaldota, J) 8 BAs : 1818,1418, 1858/2011