Delhi HC reserves order on anticipatory bail of Spicejet promoter Ajay Singh in cheating case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved the order on an anticipatory bail plea of Ajay Singh, Promoter and Managing Director Spicejet in an alleged cheating case registered against him.

Last week trial court had dismissed his bail plea stating that the grant of anticipatory bail at the stage of investigation may frustrate the investigating agency in interrogating the accused and in collecting useful information and also the materials which might have been concealed.

The bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta reserved the order after the conclusion of the submission of all sides. The court will pass the order this Thursday (tomorrow).

The petitioner Ajay Singh through Senior Siddharth Luthra submitted that the petitioner has been cooperating with the investigation and ex-facie no offence is made out against him. The FIR clearly amounts to an abuse of the criminal machinery to pre-maturely enforce a commercial contract.

The FIR has been registered for the offence of cheating in a case which is entirely based on a civil and commercial dispute arising out of a Share Purchase Agreement dated 09.07.2018, to which the Complainant/ Informant and the Petitioner herein are parties.

Luthra also submitted that the Complainant/ Informant is blatantly abusing criminal machinery to enforce an erroneous interpretation of the Closing Date of the transactions stated in the Share Purchase Agreement dated 09.07.2018. The FIR is a blatant attempt to tarnish the Petitioner's sterling reputation in society and disrupt the smooth workings of the Airline Company, he added.

Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa appeared for complainant in the matter and strongly opposed the anticipatory bail plea.

The trial court of Delhi last week declined the anticipatory bail and had said, considering the gravity of the offence and the aforementioned ratiocination held, this Court does not find sufficient ground to grant the relief sought in the application filed by the accused applicant and the same is accordingly, dismissed.

Court noted that success in such interrogation would elude if the accused knows that he is protected by the order of the court.

Earlier on March 9, the same court had granted interim protection to the accused in the matter.

According to the Delhi Police, the present case was registered at Hauz Khas Police Station with the directions of the court under section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), on the complaint of Preeti Nanda, wife of Sanjiv Nanda wherein it was alleged by her that Singh defrauded her.

The complainantt alleged that there was a share-purchase agreement between him and the accused and she paid Rs 10 lakh for 10 lakh shares of SpiceJet. These shares, however, were not transferred leading to the filing of the police complaint against Singh.

The complainant submitted that it was subsequently found that the delivery instruction slip was invalid and outdated.

Delhi Police while opposing the anticipatory bail plea stated that Investigation revealed that there are four other cases that have also been registered against Ajay Singh which shows his conduct.

Delhi police also earlier said, the investigation is at a very crucial stage and still very much pending in this case as the accused/ applicant can manage the witnesses in the case and can also tamper with the evidence.

( With inputs from ANI )

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