Rahul Khokhar vs State of Punjab

Mehinder Singh Sullar, J.—Petitioner Rahul Khokhar son of Bau Mashih (Travel agent), has preferred the instant petition, for the grant of concession of anticipatory bail, in a case registered against him along with his brothers Ajay Khokhar & Rohit Khokhar and father Bau Mashih, proprietor of Eves Immigration Consultants, vide FIR No. 379 dated 16.11.2013 (Annexure P1), on accusation of having committed the offences punishable under sections 420 IPC and 24 of The Immigration Act, 1983 by the police of Police Station Civil Lines, Amritsar City.

After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, going through the record with their valuable assistance and considering the entire matter deeply, to my mind, there is no merit in the present petition in this context.

Ex facie the argument of learned counsel that since the petitioner has been falsely implicated by complainant in this case, so, he is entitled to the concession of pre-arrest bail, lacks merit.

As is evident from the record that the allegations of cheating and misappropriation of huge amount assigned to the petitioner, as emanating from the status report/affidavit of Balkar Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police, in substance, are as under:-

That one Tarsem Singh son of Sh. Karam Singh resident of village Deen Pur, Post Office Fatenangal, district Gurdaspur lodged an application No. 2516-PC/COP dated 16/2/13 against Rahul Khokhar the present petitioner, Rohit Khokhar, Ajay Khokhar sons of Bau Masih and Bau Masih proprietor of Eves Immigration Consultants Opp. Madaan hospital, Majitha road, Amritsar with the Commissioner of Police, Amritsar alleging therein that he contacted the petitioner and others for getting his sons Ritu Raj, Raj an Raj and Rajiv Raj sent to abroad on work permit, for which, they got Rs. 8,50,000/- from him. But they sent his sons to Malaysia on Tourist visa instead of work permit. For the reason, his sons Raj an Raj and Ritu Raj over stayed there after expiry of Tourist Visa and they were caught by Immigration department and confined in jail. He managed to get his sons released after paying fine of Rs. 1,50,000/-. He contacted with Ajay Khokhar, Rahul Khokhar and Rohit Khokhar from Malaysia and requested for sending confirmed air tickets. But the tickets sent by them were found to be forged one and he had to bear the expenses of air tickets on his own and brought his sons back to India on 8/8/13. On 14/9/13 he along with his sons went to the office of petitioner and demanded his money back. But the petitioner and his other associates beat them and confined there. The police got them released. The petitioner and his associates gave him two cheques of Rs. one lakh each in favour of Rajiv Raj, which were dishonoured by the bank, hence, they had defrauded them.

Leveling a variety of allegations and narrating the sequence of events, in all, the prosecution claimed that the accused have hatched a criminal conspiracy. Although they have promised to send the sons of complainant Tarsem Singh s/o Karam Singh (for brevity "the complainant") on work permit Visa to foreign country and obtained an amount of Rs. 8,50,000/- at various pointed occasions (depicted in the FIR), instead they had sent them on tourist visa, that too Malaysia and after the expiry of period of visa, they were sent to jail by the Malaysian authority. In this manner, the accused have cheated and misappropriated the indicated amount of the complainant. They did not return the amount to the complainant, illegally detained and beaten them as well. In the background of these allegations and in the wake of complaint of complainant, the instant criminal case was registered against the accused in the manner depicted here-in-above.

What cannot possibly be disputed here is that the concocted story put forth by the accused that it was sons of complainant, who had refused to work as waiter in the restaurant, for which purpose, they were sent to Malaysia, was duly enquired into and was found to be false by the Incharge of Economic Wing of the police. On the contrary, the version of complainant was found to be correct as described in the order dated 4.12.2013 (Annexure P8) of Additional Sessions Judge. Not only that, it has come in the inquiry that the accused were never authorized to send the people to Malaysia by the competent authority and they were unauthorizedly sending and cheating the innocent persons in order to extract money from them for their illegal gains.

Meaning thereby, very serious and direct allegations of heinous and grave offences are assigned to petitioner that he and his other co-accused, have hatched a criminal conspiracy, cheated and misappropriated the huge amount in question in the garb of sending the aforesaid persons to abroad on work permit visa. They did not return the indicated amount to the complainant. Therefore, in case, the petitioner is granted the benefit of pre-arrest bail, then, the police would be deprived to ascertain the modus operandi, involvement of petitioner in other such scams, recovery of huge pointed amount, case property and effective investigation. It would naturally adversely affect & weaken the case of the prosecution, which, to me, is not legally permissible.

There is yet another aspect of the matter, which can be viewed entirely from a different angle. During the course of inquiry, it revealed, not only that, the accused have cheated the complainant, but they had also defrauded one Randhir Singh son of Charan Singh, Dheeraj Puri s/o Daljeet Singh, Manjit s/o Santokh Singh, residents of Balachaur and misappropriated their Rs. 6,50,000/-, Kabul Singh son of Ranjodh Singh of Rs. 1,20,000/-, Lakhbir Singh s/o Sukhwant Singh of Rs. 4,90,000/- and similar criminal cases were registered against them, by virtue of FIR No. 31 dated 2.5.2011, for the commission of offences punishable u/ss. 420 and 120-B IPC in Police Station Dera Baba Nanak, Distt. Gurdaspur, FIR No. 46 dated 9.2.2014, on accusation of having committed the offences punishable u/ss. 420 and 120-B IPC and FIR No. 273 dated 14.9.2013, for having committed the offences punishable u/ss. 148, 323, 342 and 506 read with section 149 IPC in Police Station Civil Lines, Amritsar. That means, the petitioner and his other co-accused are habitual offenders and have cheated & duped the huge amount in question of indicated different people. Therefore, the petitioner is not entitled to the concession of pre-arrest bail in the obtaining circumstances of the case.

Above-all, it is now well settled principle of law that the anticipatory bail should not be granted lightly and in a routine manner. The grant or refusal of such bail depends on the variety of circumstances, the cumulative effect of which, should enter the judicial verdict. The power u/s 438 Cr.PC is to be exercised sparingly and in exceptional cases keeping into focus the facts and circumstances of each case. The Court has also to see that an order of anticipatory bail should not operate as an in-road in exercising the judicial discretion in granting the anticipatory bail. At the same time, the Court should not be unmindful of the difficulties likely to be faced and the public interest likely to be affected thereby.

No other point, worth consideration, has either been urged or pressed by the learned counsel for the parties.

In the light of aforesaid reasons, taking into consideration the seriousness of allegations of cheating & misappropriation of indicated amount against him and without commenting further anything on merits, lest it may prejudice the case of either side during the course of trial of main case, as there is no merit, therefore, the instant petition for anticipatory bail filed by the petitioner is hereby dismissed as such.

Needless to mention that nothing observed, here-in-above, would reflect, on merits of the main case, in any manner, during the trial, as the same has been so recorded for a limited purpose of deciding the present petition for pre-arrest bail only.