Madhya Pradesh High Court
Jayantilal Gokaldas Gandhi vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh on 22 October, 2018
Equivalent citations: AIRONLINE 2018 MP 996
1 MCRC-40677-2018
The High Court Of Madhya Pradesh
MCRC-40677-2018
(JAYANTILAL GOKALDAS GANDHI Vs THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH)
Jabalpur, Dated : 22-10-2018
Shri Anil Khare, Senior Advocate with Ms. Pallavi Khare, counsel for
the applicants.
Shri Akhilesh Singh, Govt. Advocate for the respondent/State.
Heard both the learned counsel for the parties.
This is firs t bail application filed by the applicants Jayantilal Gokaldas Gandhi, Sanjay Jayantilal Gandhi, Rajiv Jayantilal Gandhi, Anirudh Sharma and Smt. Santosh Sharma under Section 438 of CrPC for grant of anticipatory bail.
The applicants apprehend their arrest in connection with Crime No.91/2014, registered at P.S â€" Morwa, District â€" Singrauli under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of IPC.
As per prosecution story, on 09/11/2013 the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO), Northern Coalfields Ltd., Singrauli sent a report to S.P. District â€"
Singrauli along with the letter of S.P. C.B.I. Jabalpur to the effect that M/s.
Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. Ltd. (applicants No.1 to 3 , said to be directors of the said company) who had participated in various tender proceedings invited by the Northern Coalfields Ltd., Singrauli had used fake National Small Industries Certificate (NSIC) in the tender proceedings prior to July 2011 to show that M/s. Vulcan was registered with NSIC, Ahmedabad while it was established during the investigation that M/s. Vulcan Industries Engineering Co. Ltd. is not in the list of registered unit with NSIC, Ahmedabad. The office of NSIC, Ahmedabad never issued such certificates in favour of M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engg. Co. Ltd. The certificate used by M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering was forged NSIC and on the basis of that forged NSIC certificate M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. Ltd. obtained undue pecuniary advantage of non submission of earnest money/security deposit in the tenders since the NSIC registered companies Digitally signed by RANJEET AHIRWAL Date: 25/10/2018 12:31:35
2 MCRC-40677-2018 were not required to deposit the earnest money/security deposit as per tender condition and also get other privileges like tender documents free of cost, complete exemption from paying earnest money deposit (EMD) in any tender, waiver of security deposit upto monetary limit and 15% price preference over the quotation of large scale industries. It is further stated that it was also found during bidding M/s. Technica Enterprises Udaipur (applicant No.4 and 5 are said to be Director of the said company) submitted the documents as manufacturer of Drill rods while the firm is not having any plant and machinery and does not exist at given address. Only a small office given to fulfill the requirements of documents exist at Udaipur. On that report police registered Crime No.91/2014 against the both companies at Police Station Morwa, District Singrauli for the offence punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of IPC.
Learned counsel for the applicants submitted that applicants are innocent and have falsely been implicated in this case. The applicants No.1 to 3 are the Directors of M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. Ltd. while applicant No.5 was the proprietor of M/s. Technica Enterprises and as far as applicant No.4 is concerned, he is husband of applicant No.5-Smt. Santosh Sharma and at no point of time was connected with the affairs of M/s. Technica Enterprises. The alleged offence is said to have been registered in the year 2014 but the applicants did not have any knowledge regarding the registration of the same. The applicants No.1 to 3 received the knowledge about the registration of the present case by the P.S. Morwa on 15.09.2018. It is alleged that in the year 2006 M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Company and M/s. Technica Enterprises had prepared forged National Small Industries Corporation Certificate (NSIC) to participate in the tender of Northern Coalfields Ltd. It is further alleged that at the time of submission of offer against the tender one has to deposit the earnest money deposit and the tender fees but if a firm is registered under NSIC and have a NSIC certificate then that firm will be exempted from paying 2.5% of earnest money deposit Digitally signed by RANJEET AHIRWAL Date: 25/10/2018 12:31:35 3 MCRC-40677-2018 and tender fees. It is further alleged that M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. and M/s. Technica Enterprises were exempted from paying the earnest money deposit and tender fees as they had submitted a forged NSIC certificate and thus there was a wrongful gain to the accused persons but there is no evidence on record to show that applicants filed that tender documents along with the said forged NSIC for getting contract. As per the notice inviting tenders the participant is required to deposit the earnest money which should be 2.5% of the tender amount or Rs.10 lacs whichever is less. In case of an unsuccessful tender the earnest money deposit (EMD) is refunded immediately after finalization of the tender. The successful tenderer has to deposit 10% of the value of the awarded contract. According to various NIT’s issued by the NCL, the EMD has to be converted to the security money in the case of a successful tenderer which is refundable to the firm within thirty days of the satisfactory execution of the contract. It is clear from the condition that if any exemption was claimed on the basis of NSIC from depositing the earnest money the same did not give any benefit to the tenderer. The tenderer was in any case required to submit the security deposit of 10% of the contract value. As far as the applicants No.1 to 3 are concerned they are merely the Directors of M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. Ltd. and as far as the applicant No.5 is concerned she was the proprietor of M/s. Technica Enterprises which has already been closed since 30.09.2012. He further submitted that said forged certificate along with tender documents were produced by the employees of M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. Ltd. namely Rajesh Panchal, Prashant Nayar and Nayan Patel. When applicants came to know about that fact, the applicant started to deposit the Earnest Money Deposit and applicants also lodged the complaint against them. On that police registered Crime No.95/2012 for the offence punishable under Section 381, 406, 420, 120-B of IPC and Section 43, 65, 66, 72 of IT Act. Applicants are ready to cooperate in the investigation and trial. In the event of arrest, their reputation will be ruined. Under these Digitally signed by RANJEET AHIRWAL Date: 25/10/2018 12:31:35 4 MCRC-40677-2018 circumstances, applicant prays for bail.
Learned counsel for the State opposed the prayer and submitted that applicants submitted forged NSIC certificate along with tender documents and got tender on the basis of that forged NSIC certificate. Applicants No.1 to 3 are the Directors of M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. Ltd. and the applicants No.4 & 5 are the Directors of M/s. Technica Enterprises Udaipur so they are directly responsible for that act because ultimate beneficiary of that act was M/s. Vulcan Industrial Engineering Co. Ltd. So they should not be released on anticipatory bail.
It is alleged that the company submitted the tender documents along with forged NSIC certificate for getting contract from Northern Coalfields Ltd., and took the benefit of NSIC certificate. Although applicants submitted that the forged NSIC certificate was prepared by the employees of company namely Rajesh Panchal, Prashant Nayar and Nayan Patel and that they had lodged a report at Police Station Vidyanagar against them but from the copy of report produced by the applicants along with their application it appears that applicants lodged the report against their employees namely Rajesh Panchal, Prashant Nayar and Nayan Patel for leaking confidential information like important documents, costing sheet, digital signature, design of materials, drawing, customer information to other foreign companies with a view to getting economic benefit and not for preparing forged NSIC certificate and filing that certificate along with tender documents. It is stated that they came to know that Rajesh Panchal, Prashant Nayar and Nayan Patel had prepared forged NSIC certificate and produced the same along with the tender documents on behalf of the company in the year 2010 but why did they not inform that fact to Northern Coalfields Ltd., at that time. In the letter of S.P. C.B.I. Jabalpur it is also mentioned that it was also found that during bidding M/s. Technica Enterprises Udaipur (applicant No.4 and 5, said to be Director of the said company) had submitted the documents as manufacturer of Drill rods while the firm is not having any plant and machinery and does not Digitally signed by RANJEET AHIRWAL Date: 25/10/2018 12:31:35 5 MCRC-40677-2018 existed at given address. Only a small office given to fulfill the requirements of documents exists at Udaipur. So, this Court is not inclined to grant anticipatory bail to the applicants.
Accordingly, the anticipatory bail application is hereby rejected.
(RAJEEV KUMAR DUBEY) JUDGE (ra) Digitally signed by RANJEET AHIRWAL Date: 25/10/2018 12:31:35