Submit report on false sureties case by October, Ludhiana Sessions Judge told

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 23

Just about five months after a trial court was rapped for acting mechanically while accepting false sureties and bail bonds in a case allegedly involving fake invoices worth Rs 393 crore, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has set October first week as deadline for the Ludhiana District and Sessions Judge to hold an inquiry.

Justice Deepak Sibal of the High Court had in May set a month’s deadline for the submission of report, but the Ludhiana District and Sessions Judge, vide letter dated May 27, sought additional time for submitting a conclusive enquiry report.

Fixing the case for October 7, Justice Sibal made it clear that the Judge would submit his report in terms of the court’s earlier order before the adjourned date of hearing. Justice Sibal, on a previous date of hearing, had also directed the trial court, which accepted the bail bonds and sureties, to furnish comments on the safeguards taken to record “satisfaction” before ordering the release of the accused.

Justice Sibal had asserted furnishing false sureties at the time of release of an accused on bail clearly amounted to interference in the administration of justice. It was a menace, which continued to be rampant despite issuance of directions by the High Court in December 2011 in the case of “Rajinder Kumar versus State of Haryana”. The same was required to be put to an end.

Justice Sibal had added that the trial court’s “satisfaction” at the time of accepting false sureties and bail bonds was, prima facie, recorded rather mechanically and ex-facie in violation of directions issued and circulated by the HC in Rajinder Kumar’s case.

The case has its genesis in an FIR registered on a complaint by the tax authorities in Ludhiana, alleging that the petitioner-accused, by creating 23 fake accounts, raised fake invoices worth Rs 393 crore. The trial court in January granted bail to the petitioner, subject to furnishing of two sureties worth Rs 1 crore each, along with a bank guarantee worth Rs 50 lakh. The court accepted the same and ordered the petitioner’s release. It was later revealed that both the sureties, whose Aadhaar cards were produced before the court, had actually not consented to stand sureties. They had also not provided documents regarding their properties, which were produced before the trial court. Accordingly, an FIR for cheating, forgery and other offences was registered under Sections 170, 199, 200, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 474 and 120-B of the IPC against the petitioner.

Rs393-crore fake invoices raised

• In an FIR registered on a complaint by Ludhiana tax authorities, it’s alleged that the petitioner-accused, by creating 23 fake accounts, raised fake invoices worth Rs393 crore
• The trial court in January granted bail to the petitioner, subject to furnishing of two sureties and a bank guarantee. It was later revealed that both sureties had actually not consented to stand sureties

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