Haryana Court grants bail to Ambience Developers' MD Raj Singh Gehlot in cheating case

A Haryana Court in Panchkula recently granted bail to Ambience Mall owner Raj Singh Gehlot accused of defrauding a couple in a license scam.

The allegations involve Gehlot misleading the couple by acquiring a commercial license while promising to develop a group housing colony.

Special Judicial Magistrate Anil Kumar Yadav granted bail to Gehlot subject to bail bond of ₹1,00,000.

"There is nothing on record to even prima-facie support the apprehensions of the prosecution qua likelihood of fleeing of accused from justice, if he is granted the concession of bail. It is trite that bail is a rule and jail is an exception," the Court said in its order of September 21.

The complainants, Amitabha Sen and Deepika Sen, alleged that Gehlot, who is the Director of Ambience Developers & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, had the intention to cheat them from the very beginning and same became apparent when he initiated the process to acquire a commercial license for 8 acres of land by applying for the same on July 18, 2000.

The accused applied with Letter of Intent (LOI) dated September 28, 2001 for issuance of license for developing Commercial Colony by de-licensing the same (Group Housing Colony) even before execution of Buyer Builder Agreement with the complainants.

Thus, the accused intentionally omitted to disclose material information from Amitabha Sen and Deepika Sen regarding the ongoing efforts to obtain commercial license and fraudulently got the license for developing a commercial colony.

They contended the same caused wrongful loss to the buyers and a corresponding wrongful gain to the accused, thereby constituting the offence of criminal conspiracy and cheating, punishable under Sections 120B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

However, Gehlot was never arrested by CBI.

The trial court later took cognizance of the offence and summoned him whereupon he moved the bail plea.

During hearing, Gehlot's counsel argued, that investigation in the was already complete and he cooperated with the same.

Considering that the accused was never arrested by the CBI during the investigation, and the chargesheet has been filed by the CBI upon conclusion of the investigation, the counsel requested that the accused be released on bail in accordance with the law.

Relying on several Supreme Court judgments, the Court observed,

"if the offence carries punishment upto seven years; the accused has cooperated during investigation; the investigating agency did not choose to arrest the accused; and on completion of investigation the challan has been filed in the Court without arresting the accused, then he should be released on bail subject to just exceptions."

With these observations, the Court granted conditional bail to Gehlot.

Public Prosecutor Jaswinder Kumar Bhatti apprered for the CBI.

Advocates Tanveer Ahmed Mir and Tushan Rawal appeared for Gehlot.

[Read Order]