Delhi Court grants bail to accused alleged of cheating Indian Immigration within days of arrest

Patiala House Court, New Delhi: While hearing a two set of applications filed by the Investigation Officer (‘IO’) and the accused seeking 14 days Judicial custody and bail respectively, Yashdeep Chahal J, dismissed the application seeking 14 days custody of the accused and granted bail to the accused, imposing certain conditions.

In the matter at hand, the accused was travelling from New York, USA to India and was arrested on 21-05-2023 on the account of missing departure details for the year 2012 in the immigration system and furthermore, no departure stamp of Indian immigration was found on his passport, and it was alleged that he might have used someone else’s passport while departing from India. A First Information Report (‘FIR’) against the accused was filed under Section 419 and 420 of the Penal Code, 1860.

The accused contended that his passport was renewed by the government authorities on multiple occasions and no such illegality was ever flagged.

The Court said that the law with respect to bail is settled and the Court is expected to incline towards custody only in cases of necessity and such necessity must be demonstrable from the facts of the case. The Court noted that in the present case the allegation against the accused was of ‘no departure’. After examining the submissions by the IO and the accused, the Court said that there was no reason to necessitate the custody of the accused any further.

Thus, the Court allowed the bail application of the accused upon furnishing the bail bond of Rs. 25,000/-. The Court also imposed certain conditions on the accused for grant of bail:

1. the accused must attend the Court in accordance with the conditions of the bond executed;

2. shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case to dissuade him/her from disclosing such facts to the Court or to any police Officer or tamper with the evidence;

3. will not leave the country without prior permission of the Court; and

4. shall not commit an offence similar to the offence of which he is accused or suspected.

Therefore, the application moved by the IO seeking 14 days Judicial Custody of the accused was dismissed and the accused shall be released forthwith.

[State v. Kamaljit Singh, 2023 SCC OnLine Dis Crt (Del) 7 ,Order Dated: 24-05-2023]