-1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI B.A. No. 7351 of 2017 Santosh Shah @ Santosh Chowdhury.......…........ Petitioner Versus Union of India through Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)….……… Opp. Party …… Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ananda Sen …… For the Petitioner : Mr. R.S.Mazumdar, Sr. Advocate Mr. Kumar Vaibhav, Advocate For the CBI : Mr. K.P.Deo, Advocate …… ORDER
C.A.V. On 12/12/2017 Delivered On 18/12/2017 07/18.12.2017 Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and learned counsel for the CBI.
2. The petitioner is an accused for allegedly committing offence punishable under Section 120B & 511 of the Indian Penal Code, Section , 7, 12, 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with R.C. AC1 2017 A0003(RC3A)/2017 D), pending in the Court of Special Judge, CBI, Ranchi.
3. The allegation in the First Information Report is that one Tapas Kumar Dutta, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Ranchi entered into a criminal conspiracy with other Income Tax officers and other persons and, thereafter, transferred the income tax files of several assesses from Kolkata to Ranchi and Hazaribagh. As a part of the said conspiracy, reassessment was done in respect of the said companies, whose files were transferred and thereafter huge tax benefits have been given to the said assesses. It is alleged that the said benefits were given to the assesses for which those assesses had paid huge amount by way of bribe.
4. On the basis of the said allegation, FIR was lodged against said Tapas Kumar Dutta and the officials of the Income Tax Department (public servants), who have done the reassessment and other persons, who are not the public servant like the businessman, middle men.
5. After completion of investigation, charge sheet has been filed in -2- this case, which has been brought on record.
6. This petitioner is not a public servant. The petitioner is alleged to be functioning as a custodian of ill gotten money of the principal accused Sri Tapas Kumar Dutta. It is alleged that a cartel of businessmen paid huge bribe to Tapas Kumar Dutta for getting their income tax files reassessed and the petitioner is one of them. It is stated that the petitioner is the Controller of M/s Highrank Advisory Services Private Limited and Sri Tapas Kumar Dutta issued favourable orders by abusing his position and the money which was collected, was stashed with this petitioner. It is further alleged that this petitioner paid interest @ 6% for the said deposited illegal money to Tapas Kumar Dutta. It is alleged that this petitioner and others have floated many shell companies also.
7. Learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is absolutely innocent and has got no connection with the said company. He submits that the petitioner is shown to be the controller of M/s Highrank Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd, which is a company incorporated under the Companies Act. Under the Companies Act, there cannot be a controller of a company. He further submits that the term controller is unknown in the Company Law. He submits that the petitioner is neither a Director nor the promoter or shareholder of the said company and thus his implication in this case is absolutely bad. He further submits that in this case charge sheet has already been submitted and during the entire period of investigation, this petitioner cooperated with the agency, thus he was not taken into custody during investigation. It is stated that only a day prior to the submission of the charge sheet, when the investigation was in fact complete, this petitioner was taken into custody on 07.09.2017. He further submits that there was no occasion to take the petitioner in custody when the investigation was already complete. He further submits that the petitioner is entitled to be released on bail as there existed no relation between the petitioner and said Tapas Kumar Dutta. -3- 8. Mr. Deo, learned counsel appearing for the CBI submits that the petitioner is one of the links between the main accused Tapas Kumar Dutta and the businessmen, who got indulged in this activity. He further submits that the petitioner is shown as a controller because he was controlling the affairs of the company so far as it relates to the commission of the crime. It is further submitted that huge money was given to the main accused Tapas Kumar Dutta by this petitioner and others and in fact, said Tapas Kumar Dutta had parked the ill gotten money with this petitioner and others and he was taking interest there from. He further submits that in charge sheet, after investigation, the CBI has found this petitioner to be one of the conduits in the crime. He further submits that it has come during investigation that there was huge amount of gold/jewelries approximately weighing to 6 kg and cash amount of Rs. 3.715 crores, which were found from the residence of Tapas Kumar Dutta. He submits that there is evidence of ownership/transfer of flats also in this process. He further submits that though in respect of particular FIR charge sheet has been filed but seeing the involvement of this petitioner with said Tapas Kumar Dutta and since the petitioner is a conduit, other matters may surface for which the petitioner does not deserves bail.
9. After hearing the parties and after going through the records, I find that the income tax files of several companies, which were being assessed at Kolkata, were transferred to Ranchi and Hazaribagh. Sri Tapas Kumar Dutta passed orders setting aside the assessment orders, remanding the matter to different income tax officials with directions and observations. Thereafter, on reassessment, the demands were reduced drastically by the income tax officials. There is allegation against this petitioner that he is one of the conduits and was feeding Tapas Kumar Dutta with bribe. Huge amount of gold and cash was recovered from the possession of Tapas Kumar Dutta. This petitioner was looking after the affairs of Highrank Advisory Services Pvt Ltd and benefit was given to the said company also. It has also come during investigation that money of -4- Tapas Kumar Dutta was parked with this petitioner and this petitioner was giving interest to said Tapas Kumar Dutta. From the charge sheet it is understood that he was one of the main person, who was feeding Tapas Kumar Dutta. It is pertinent to mention here that huge ill gotten money/cash and other evidence, which prima-facie supports the payment of bribe, has been recovered from the house of Tapas Kumar Dutta, but nothing was recovered from the other income tax officers to suggest quid pro quo. The call details also suggest that this petitioner was in regular touch with Tapas Kumar Dutta. Thus, the case of this petitioner stands on different footing to that of the other officials of the Income Tax Department, because no incriminating cash or asset was recovered/ collected from their possession to suggest that the same was bribe money and the only allegation against them is that they have reassessed the income tax files as per the observation and direction given by the main accused Tapas Kumar Dutta, while he was setting aside the original assessment orders. Thus, case of this petitioner cannot be equated with the Income Tax Officers and thus is absolutely different.
10. Though charge sheet has already been submitted in this case, but seeing the involvement of this petitioner and his connection with Tapas Kumar Dutta, the main accused and also seeing the link between this petitioner and the main accused Tapas Kumar Dutta as well as taking into consideration the submissions advanced on behalf of the CBI, I am not inclined to release the petitioner namely, Santosh Shah @ Santosh Chowdhury on bail. Accordingly, his prayer for bail is hereby rejected. (Ananda Sen, J) Mukund/-cp.2