Bail cannot be thwarted merely by asserting that offence is grave: Himachal Pradesh High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently observed that the gravity of an alleged offence cannot be the sole ground to contest the grant of bail to an accused. (Bhupinder Kumar Sharma v. Central Bureau of Investigation).While allowing a bail plea in a case involving allegations of government scholarship fund embezzlement, into which a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe is underway, Justice Jyotsana Rewal Dua opined,"Even if present is a case of socio-economic offence of serious magnitude and respondent may have strong evidence about involvement of the petitioner, yet ‘gravity can only beget length of sentence’ provided in law, after the trial. Grant of bail cannot be thwarted merely by asserting that offence is grave and therefore, petitioner should remain in custody till the investigation of all the private educational institutes is completed, regarding timeline of which, respondent apparently has no clue.".The Court referred to a host of decisions of the Supreme Court to reiterate that the punishment of an accused only begins after conviction, and that "every man is deemed innocent until duly tried and proved guilty."."Even in cases involving economic offences, where there is strong, prima facie, evidence against the accused, it cannot be said by way of an abstract principle that bail should invariably be refused. It is impossible to hold that an accused should not be granted bail during pendency of whole of investigation," Justice Dua held..The Court was considering a bail plea by one Bhupinder Kumar Sharma, who had earlier been granted interim protection from arrest. The case involved the alleged misappropriation of government scholarship funds on a large scale with the complicity of officials in the education department, the Central government, banks and private institutions..Sharma was the Chairman of the Dev Bhumi Educational Trust when an educational institute under the Trust was accused of misappropriating about ₹ 2.02 crore of scholarship money earmarked for students from Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. The institute was one of about 26 private educational institutions under the CBI's scanner in the case..The Court granted Sharma bail after noting that several co-accused in the case had already been granted bail and that there was no definite timeline given by the CBI on when the probe would be concluded. In such a situation, no purpose is going to be served by keeping the petitioner behind bars, the Court opined..To allay the CBI's concerns over the possibility of the accused tampering with the investigation during his release, the Court imposed stringent conditions while granting bail. It cannot be presumed that the petitioner will flee justice or that he will influence the investigation or the witnesses, the Court added."Investigation should not be carried out indefinitely and forever without any regard to time, considering the interests of all involved. Nonetheless it is open to the respondent to continue to investigate into the matter, however, for this reason, petitioner cannot be permitted to incarcerate as a pre-trial prisoner. His liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution is also required to be protected (sic)," the Court further emphasised, before disposing of the plea..Senior Advocate NS Chandel and Advocate Vinod K Gupta appeared for the petitioner, whereas Special Public Prosecutor AK Bansal appeared for the CBI..[Read Judgment]