1 mpt IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 3862 OF 2007 Rajesh Vasant Jawalekar .. Applicant versus State of Maharashtra .. Respondent ... Mr.A.P.Mundargi i/b Harshad Nimbalkar and Yogesh Pawar for the applicant. Mr.K.V. Saste APP for the State. CORAM : D.G.KARNIK, J DATED : 7th March 2008 P.C.: 1. Heard. 2. Learned APP prays for an adjournment on the ground that the Investigating Officer is not present. Even on the last date, I.O. was not present. The matter cannot be adjourned indefinitely for absence of the I.O. He should have taken care either to 2 remain present or give appropriate instructions to the learned APP if he was unable to remain present. The request for adjournment is rejected. 3. By this application, the applicant prays for pre-arrest bail in connection with the Crime No.249 of 2008 registered at Chakan police station for the alleged offence punishable u/s.467, 468, 471 r/w section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. 4. The complainant Balasaheb Bajirao Shinde lodged an FIR with Chakan police station alleging that by making false signatures of himself and his family members, money was wrongly borrowed in their name from Ajit Sahakari Bank Ltd. (for short ’the bank’) Nineteen persons have been named as persons who prepared false documents and borrowed over Rs.One crore from the bank by fraudulently mortgaging the property of the applicant and his family members. He and his family members had neither borrowed money nor created any mortgage and documents do not bear the signatures which have been forged fraudulently. 5. From the investigation that was carried out so far, it prima facie appears that the Chairman of the bank is involved in the fraud. He has stated that he would repay the loans. IF he was not 3 concerned with the fraud, prima facie, there was no reason for him to state taht he would repay the loana. Despite such statement given by the Chairman to the auditor, the police have not arrested the Chairman of the bank. It appears that the Investigating Officer is protecting the Chairman and wants to arrest the others including the applicant on the accusition of having committed the fraud. In the circumstances, it would be appropriate to grant conditional pre-arrest bail to the present applicant. Hence, I pass the following order:- O R D E R O R D E R O R D E R . In the event the applicant is arrested, he shall be released on bail on personal bond of Rs.25,000/- with two sureties of the like amount subject to the following conditions:- i) The applicant shall co-operate with the investigation and attend the police station once a week on every Monday between 5 pm to 7 p.m. for a period of 12 weeks. ii) The applicants shall not directly or indirectly make any inducements or threats to any of 4 the prosecution witnesses and shall not in any way interfere with the investigation. . This order shall come to an end after the charge sheet is filed whereupon the applicant may, if he so desires, may apply to the court for regular bail. If such an application is made, the Court shall consider it on its own merits without being in any way influenced by any of the observations made herein, which are only prima facie. (D.G. KARNIK, J)