Gujarat High Court
Prahladram Chhelaram Joshi vs State Of Gujarat on 1 July, 2021
Author: A. S. Supehia
Bench: A.S. Supehia
R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/CRIMINAL MISC.APPLICATION NO. 5529 of 2021
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PRAHLADRAM CHHELARAM JOSHI
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT
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Appearance:
MR MANISH J PATEL(2131) for the Applicant(s) No. 1
MR HK PATEL, APP for the Respondent(s) No. 1
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.S. SUPEHIA
Date : 01/07/2021
ORAL ORDER
[1] Heard the learned advocates for the respective parties through video conferencing.
[2] By way of the present application filed under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the applicants-accused have prayed for bail in connection with the FIR being C.R.No.11196013210062 of 2021 registered with Sama Police Station, Vadodara City, District Vadodara for the offences under Sections 420, 406 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
[3] Brief facts of the case are as under:-
[3.1] It is stated that a complaint came be filed by one Bhavinkumar Narendrabhai Vithaldas Soni, inter alia stating that he is in isolation Ward Room No.7 of S.S.G hospital, Vadodara and running the business of computer repairing. He has one brother and one sister. The complainant has further stated that his father namely Narendrabhai Soni is a retired person, while his mother Diptiben is doing household work. It is stated in the FIR Page 1 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022 R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021 that around 30 to 35 years ago his father was taking shops on rent namely Mahindrakumar & Bros. and subsequent thereto, in the year 2015 the same was vacated and at that time he had taken Rs.11 lakhs from the original owner of the shop. It is further stated that in the year 2018 when his family was in dire need of money, at that time they have taken the loan of Rs.7 lakhs from the Housing Finance Company located at Genda Circle, Vadodara. Thereafter, out of which they have deposited Rs.3 lakhs in the HDFC bank and rest of Rs.4 lakhs they have invested in the business of plastics and buying shop namely Shree Trading, Near Abhilasha Crossroad, and Vadodara.
[3.2] It is further stated that in the month of December, 2018 they have published an advertisement in the Sandesh newspaper to sell out their house in 40 lakhs, but somehow the house in question was not sold out and the family was in tension and in such situation the father of the complainant saw an advertisement in the newspaper of astrologer namely Hemant Joshi and discussed with him about the problems faced by the family. It is further alleged in the FIR that Hemant Joshi initially said that it is happening because of your bad luck, but after some time he has deceitfully cheated the father of the complainant. It is further alleged that the complainant and his family had trusted the astrologer. It is alleged that the accused obtained Rs.35,000/-from the father of the complainant for performing rituals. Thereafter, the complainant's father has approached another astrologer Swaraj- accused no.2 on instructions of accused no.1-Hemant Joshi. It is alleged that he came to the house of complainant and dug 2 feet in his kitchen and revealed one copper pot full with gold ornaments Page 2 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022 R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021 and another one was with full of bones and asked to put two copper pots in the cupboard and in order to get money, he said that we have to perform some rituals and for which Rs.13,50,000/- was demanded. It is further alleged that because of blind trust and influence in such black magic, the father of the complainant again obtained loan of 15 lakhs rupees from another Finance company, out of which another Rs.8 lakhs was deposited to reimburse the earlier loan of housing finance company and rest of the amount was handed over to Hemant Jyoshi-accused no.1.
[3.3] It is also alleged in the FIR that in the month of April, 2019 the family of the complainant sold out the house in Rs.25 lakhs and out of this amount Rs.14 lakhs was given to perform so called black magic in order to unearth secret treasure.
[3.4] It is further alleged that after some time father of the complainant was at his house and at that time they again read out one advertisement in Gujarat Samachar newspaper and at that time they have contacted the accused no.3 herein namely Prahlad Joshi of Ahmedabad and also given Rs.2 lakhs to him for performing rituals. Thereafter, he sent one person namely Dinesh (Dharmabhai) accused no.4 to the house of complainant where that man had performed some rituals and witchcraft. Subsequently, the father of the complainant made the telephonic communication with the applicant herein Prahlad Joshi accused no.3 and at that time he demanded Rs.7 lakhs for performing another rituals. However, that amount was not given by the father of the complainant to the accused.
Page 3 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021 [3.5] It is further alleged that in the year 2019 the father of the complainant brought another astrologer from Ahmedabad namely Sameer Joshi-accused no.5 allegedly took Rs.5 lakhs for performing a ceremony and unrevealed some copper pots and some silver ornaments which were sold out to jweller at Zinzuvadia Brothers, Mandvi and the father of the complainant obtained Rs.1,50,000/- from there silver ornaments.
[3.6] It is further alleged in the year 2019 father of the complainant went to 'Pushkar' situated in the district of Ajmer (Rajasthan) where he met with another Jyotish where also he has also given Rs.4 lakhs to the unknown astrologer for performing some spiritual ceremony. It is further alleged that again father of the complainant has approached one Astrologer residing near Pani Gate, Ayurveda cross Road, Vadodara and also gave Rs.3,50,000/-in the year 2020 for black magic. It is further alleged that in the year 2020, the father of the complainant once again read an advertisement published in the newspaper and contacted Vijay Joshi-accused no.7 residing in Ahmedabad and in order to perform rituals he has cheated by him Rs.3,50,000/- and he sent one unknown person namely Alkesh Joshi accused no.8 to the house of the complainant who also after digging two feet unrevealed some articles.
[3.7] It is further alleged that because of deceitful, fraudulent cheating by the so called self astrologers, and Tantriks, the family of the complainant faced financial crises, hence, they eventually decided to commit suicide in group and on dated 3.3.2021 time around 5 O' clock at evening one poison bottle was brought by father of the complainant which all the family members consumed Page 4 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022 R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021 in cold drinks and because of that the father of the complainant, sister of the complainant as well as son of the complainant passed away, while wife of the complainant is under treatment and is in medical supervision of the doctors in Shreeji hospital, Baroda. Accordingly this FIR came to be filed before Sama police station, Vadodara City, Vadodara.
[4] Learned advocate for the applicant submits that the nature of allegations are such for which custodial interrogation of the applicant at this stage is not necessary. He further submits that the applicant will keep himself available during the course of investigation, as well as in the trial also and will not flee from justice.
[5] Learned advocate for the applicant, on instructions, states that the applicant is ready and willing to abide by all the conditions, including imposition of conditions with regard to powers of investigating agency to file an application before the competent Court for his remand. He further submits that upon filing of such application by the investigating agency, the right of the applicant accused to oppose such application on merits may be kept open. Learned advocate, therefore, submits that considering the above facts, the applicant may be granted bail.
[6] On the other hand, the learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing on behalf of the respondent- State has opposed grant of bail looking to the nature and gravity of the offence.
[7] Having heard the learned advocates for the parties and perusing the material placed on record and taking into Page 5 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022 R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021 consideration the facts of the case, nature of allegations, gravity of offences, role attributed to the accused, without discussing the evidence in detail, at this stage, I am inclined to grant bail to the applicant.
[8] This Court has considered the following aspects;
(a) The role of the applicant; (b) There appears delay as the alleged rituals were performed by the accused in 2018-2019; (c) The crux of the accusation is the financial distress of not
payment of loan and unselling of the house in the year 2018, for which the accused were engaged, and ultimately the house was sold in the year 2019;
(d) There is no possibility of tempering the evidence;
(e) Prima facie considering the nature of offence, the custodial interrogation of the applicant is not necessary at this stage;
Looking to the over all facts and circumstances of the present case, I am inclined to consider the case of the applicants.
[9] This Court has also taken into consideration the law laid down by the Apex Court in the cases of Sushila Aggarwal vs. State (Nct of Delhi), AIR 2020 SC 831 and Siddharam Satlingappa Mhetre vs State of Maharashtra, AIR 2011 SC 312.
[10] In the result, the present application is allowed. The applicant is ordered to be released on bail in the event of his arrest in connection with FIR being C.R.No.11196013210062 of 2021 registered with Sama Police Station, Vadodara City, District Vadodara on Page 6 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022 R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021 his executing a personal bond of Rs.10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand Only) with one surety of like amount on the following conditions that he :
(a) shall cooperate with the investigation and make himself available for interrogation whenever required;
(b) shall remain present at the concerned Police Station on 08.07.2021 between 11.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m.;
(c) shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the fact of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer;
(d) shall not obstruct or hamper the police investigation and not to play mischief with the evidence collected or yet to be collected by the police;
(e) shall at the time of execution of bond, furnish the address to the investigating officer and the court concerned and shall not change their residence till the final disposal of the case till further orders;
(f) shall not leave India without the permission of the concerned trial court and if having passports shall deposit the same before the concerned trial court within a week.
[11] Despite this order, it would be open for the investigating agency to apply to the competent Magistrate, for police remand of the applicant, if he considers it proper and just and the Magistrate would decide if on merits. The applicant shall remain present Page 7 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022 R/CR.MA/5529/2021 ORDER DATED: 01/07/2021 before the concerned Magistrate on the first date of hearing of such application and on all subsequent occasions, as may be directed by the concerned Magistrate. This would be sufficient to treat the accused in the judicial custody for the purpose of entertaining the application of the prosecution for police remand. This is, however, without prejudice to the right of the accused to seek stay against an order of remand, if, ultimately, granted, and the power of the concerned Magistrate to consider such a request in accordance with law. It is clarified that the applicant, even if, remanded to the police custody, upon completion of such period of police remand, shall be set free immediately, subject to other conditions of this bail order.
[12] At the trial, the concerned trial court shall not be influenced by the prima facie observations made by this Court in the present order.
[13] The application is allowed in the aforesaid terms. Rule is made absolute to the aforesaid extent. Registry is directed to send a copy of this order to the concerned authority/court through Fax message, email and/or any other suitable electronic mode.
[14] Learned advocate for the applicant is also permitted to send a copy of this order to the concerned authority/court through Fax message, email and/or any other suitable electronic mode.
(A. S. SUPEHIA, J) ABHISHEK Page 8 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Jan 15 20:00:50 IST 2022