Indian Supreme Court today granted bail to a man accused of cheating a businessman of Rs. 3.90 crores by impersonating as the nephew of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi passed the order, noting that the accused has undergone over 4 years in custody (while the maximum possible sentence is 7 yrs) and that the charges were framed in 2022 yet only the first witness (out of 34) is facing examination as on date.
Supreme Court To Centre Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee appeared for the Delhi government and opposed the bail plea. He highlighted that the prosecution’s application to include the offense of forgery is pending and there are other cases pending against the petitioner. The ASG claimed that there was an entire scam being run, where names of high constitutional functionaries was used.
The bench however was not convinced. “We should go as per law, we will not go here and there”, commented Justice Maheshwari. In response to a plea that the petitioner not be released until cross-examination of the complainant is completed, the judge added, “No, nothing. Had this case come earlier, we would have granted bail earlier also”. Supreme Court To recap, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court after he was denied bail by the Delhi High Court.
As per the FIR, he represented himself as Ajay Shah, nephew of the Home Minister, and assured to get the complainant de facto a tender worth Rs.90 crores from Government of India with respect to supply of leather for renovation of President’s Estate. Allegedly, across several meetings Rs. 3.90 crores was paid to him by the complainant through cash and RTGS on different occasions towards the said tender.
A chargesheet was filed for the offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy. However, amendment of charge was sought for offence under Section 467, 471 and 120B of IPC, pertaining to forged cheques given by the accused as security to the complainant.
