Sreekumar A.S. vs State Of Kerala

Dr Kauser Edappagath, J

This is an application filed u/s 438 of Code of Criminal Procedure seeking pre-arrest bail.

The petitioner is the accused No.2 in V.C.No.3/2022 of Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB), Southern Range, Thiruvananthapuram. The offences alleged against the accused are punishable under Sections 13(1)(c)(d) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, Section 13(1)(a) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018 and Sections 465, 468, 417, 408 r/w Section 34 of Indian Penal Code.

The prosecution case in short is that the accused Nos.1 and 3, who were the Secretary and President respectively of Porannur Milk Producers Co-operative Society No. T-79(D) APCOS, Plammoottukada (for short, 'the Society') along with accused No.2/petitioner who was the Part time Administrator abused their official position by misappropriating an amount of Rs.27,82,186.33/- by forging the Nalvazhi register and by other means and thus cheated the Society and caused wrongful loss to the society and wrongful gain to them.

I have heard Sri.J. Jayakumar, the learned counsel for the petitioner and Smt. Rekha.S, the learned Senior Public Prosecutor.

As stated already, the accused Nos.1 and 3 were the Secretary and President respectively of the Society. The petitioner joined the Society as Part time Administrator on 17/10/2019. In fact he was working as a Diary Farm Inspector at Parasala Milk Development Unit. He was deputed as a Part time Administrator of the Society, due to the dissolution of the then existing Managing committee. According to the petitioner, his main duty as a Part time Administrator was to ascertain whether the Milk Farmers are getting price of the milk properly and he has absolutely no involvement in the financial matters of the Society. A perusal of the entire records would show that the main allegations are against the accused Nos.1 and 3. Considering the allegations levelled against the petitioner, his custodial interrogation does not appear to be necessary. For all these reasons I am of the view that, the petitioner is entitled to pre-arrest bail on conditions.

In the result, the application is allowed on the following conditions:-

(i) The petitioner shall be released on bail in the event of his arrest on executing a bond for Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh only) with two solvent sureties for the like sum each to the satisfaction of the arresting officer/ investigating officer, as the case may be.

(ii) The petitioner shall fully co-operate with the investigation, including subjecting himself to the deemed police custody for the purpose of discovery, if any, as and when demanded.

(iii) The petitioner shall appear before the investigating officer between 10.00 a.m and 11.00 a.m on every Saturday until further orders. The petitioner shall also appear before the investigating officer as and when required by him.

(iv) The petitioner shall not commit any offence of like nature while on bail.

(v) The petitioner shall not make any attempt to contact any of the prosecution witnesses, directly or through any other person, or any other way try to tamper with the evidence or influence any witnesses or other persons related to the investigation.

(vi) The petitioner shall not leave the State of Kerala without the permission of the trial Court.