Manoj Kumar vs State Of Kerala

Applications for regular bail under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. The applicant is the 1st accused in all the aforesaid crimes except Crime No.356/2018 of Pudukkad Police Station, where he is the 2nd accused, for which he has filed B.A.No.2414/2021. The allegations against the applicant in all the cases are similar in nature and he is the accused of committing offences punishable under Sections 406 and 420 r/w Section 34 of IPC in some cases, offences under Sections 468, 471 and 120B IPC are also added.

The allegation against the applicant, in a nutshell, is that he along with other accused in furtherance of common intention and as a result of a conspiracy hatched between them, collected huge sums of money from the de facto complainants making them believe that they will arrange finance to start a Supermarket named " ENTA KADA". Some of the de facto complainants started the venture but sufficient materials were not supplied to them, as a result of which the business failed and the de facto complainants allegedly lost their money and the entire amount allegedly paid by them was misappropriated by the applicant and other accused. The applicant is the Managing Director of the company and as such he was also implicated in 17 other cases apart from the aforesaid cases. He was apprehended and was in custody for a fairly long time and thereafter granted bail in other 17 cases. In these aforesaid cases, his formal arrested was recorded on 08.02.21, 10.02.2021 and 11.02.2021. The applicant has been subjected to custodial interrogation in most of the cases. The applicant states that further incarceration may not be required and therefore he may not be detained and seeks bail.

The applicant is willing to cooperate with the investigation and is also ready to abide by any conditions that may be imposed. The investigation in all these cases have handed over to the Crime Branch and the crimes have been renumbered. Initially, the crimes were registered at different police stations all over Kerala and now it has been consolidated and a single investigation agency is in charge of the investigation.

In view of the fact that further detention of the applicant may not be required, as his custodial interrogation is not necessary, I find no reason for further detention of the applicant. Hence, the applications are allowed and the applicant is directed to be released on bail on the execution of bond for Rs.1,00,000/-(Rupees one lakh only) in each of the cases with two solvent sureties, each for the like amount to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional court and on following conditions:-

(i) He shall appear before the investigating officer as and when called for.

(ii) He shall not tamper with evidence, intimidate or influence the witnesses.

(iii) He shall not get involved in similar offences during the currency of the bail.

In case of violation of any bail condition, the prosecution is at liberty to apply for cancellation of the bail before the jurisdictional court.