The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging a Gujarat High Court’s decision granting anticipatory bail to Additional Commissioner of Income Tax Ahmedabad, Santosh Karnani, who has been accused in a corruption case.
Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta mentioned the plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud.Mehta apprised the bench that there is tutoring of witnesses and even CBI officials are being approached. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, agreed to list the matter.
The CBI challenged the High Court order dated December 19, 2022, and in its plea said that the HC erroneously exercised its discretionary jurisdiction in a serious offence of corruption, wherein a senior income tax officer i.e. the respondent who was working as an Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Ahmedabad was caught in a “trap case”.
The CBI in its petition said that “The electronic evidence gathered by the petitioner clearly implicated the petitioner and established the demand and acceptance of bribe/undue advantage.
The CBI also added that the High Court had granted anticipatory bail to the accused, while completely ignoring the gravity and seriousness of the offence [Corruption – Trap Case] and the position that the accused held.
The High Court also ignored the conduct of the accused who has been absconding despite the issuing of five notices under section 41A, pursuant to which Non Bailable Warrant [NBW] dated November 22, 2022, was issued by the Special Court for CBI Cases Ahmedabad, CBI Said
The FIR was registered before the State Anti-Corruption Bureau [ACB], Ahmedabad by a complainant on October 4, 2022, and acting on the FIR, local police had laid the trap on the same day and recovered the bribe amount of Rs 30,00,000 on the very same day.
“It is respectfully submitted that while granting bail to the accused the High Court failed to consider the well-settled position of law that once an accused makes himself unavailable for the purpose of joining the investigation and NBWs are issued against him, then such an accused is not entitled for any discretionary relief contemplated under 438 of CrPC,” CBI said in the plea.
