Section 409

The Supreme Court granted regular bail to Mahesh Chandra Joshi and Mukesh Pathak in the Rajasthan ACB case over forged IRCON certificates allegedly used to win Jal Jeevan Mission tenders worth Rs.979.45 crore. Calling the allegations grave, it held that gravity alone cannot justify indefinite pre-trial detention where investigation against them is complete, the evidence is documentary, both are on bail in connected cases and a long trial lies ahead (paras 9-11).

The Supreme Court granted bail to Sandip Ghosh, charge-sheeted by the CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch, Kolkata, over alleged financial irregularities in the college where he was Principal and the alleged accommodation of undeserving candidates through manipulated merit scores. He has been in custody for more than two years and only 7 of 147 witnesses have been examined. The High Court's refusal of bail was set aside (paras 4-7).

The Supreme Court restored the 2002 acquittal of a telephone department cashier accused of criminal breach of trust over Rs 8.73 lakh of bill collections in 1993. The cashbook, daily registers and audit report that would have shown entrustment were never produced, the seizure from his house was not proved, and the High Court wrongly shifted the burden to him and sentenced him without hearing him on sentence (paras 13-25).

The Supreme Court granted bail to Shubhanshu Dixit, a former secretary of the Rajasthan Water Supply and Sewerage Management Board, and Sanjay Badaya, alleged to be a middleman for the then PHED Minister, in the Jal Jeevan Mission tender case. With chargesheets filed, documentary evidence already seized and a long trial ahead, further pre-trial custody served no purpose (paras 10-14). Economic offences must be viewed seriously, but pre-trial incarceration cannot become punitive detention (paras 10, 12).