‘Courts are not recovery agents’: Orissa High Court grants bail to stage-4 cancer patient in Rs 3.5 crore land fraud case

Justice G Satapathy noted that the investigating agency had already secured approximately Rs 1.7 crore. (Image enhanced using AI)

The arder added that, above all, the petitioner is terminally ill, suffering from stage-4 metastatic cancer.

Land fraud of 3.05 crore

• The petitioner was implicated in three cases that involved a similar pattern of transactions, where the petitioner allegedly acted as a common link.
• In the first case, the informant alleged that he was induced to pay over Rs 2.05 crore for land in Khanhapur Mauza, but the sale deed was never registered despite the payment.
• The same informant alleged a similar inducement regarding a different parcel of land, involving a payment of more than Rs 50 lakh without subsequent registration.
• In one of the cases, the petitioner was alleged to used forged documents and impersonation to sell land belonging to a deceased man, leading to a fraud of approximately Rs 83.85 lakh.
• The investigation resulted in a charge sheet for various offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including cheating, forgery, and criminal breach of trust.

‘Petitioner is cancer patient, not in dispute’

• No doubt there is a serious allegation against the petitioner, but it is also stated in the FIR that the informant had allegedly transferred money not only to the petitioner, but also to the so-called land owner and other persons in all these three cases.
• The petitioner was granted interim bail by the trial court on the ground that he is suffering from metastatic cancer, which could not be disputed by any of the parties.
• The documents produced for the petitioner reveal that he is suffering from Metastatic RCC (Right Kidney-Post Total Nephrectomy) with Bone and Pleural Mets (Stage IV).
• The medical documents reveal that the petitioner is at present given palliative treatment.
• It is no doubt true that the allegation against the petitioner and others is for financial fraud to the tune of Rs 3.5 crore, but a sum of Rs 1.7 crore appears to have been secured.
• Criminal proceedings are not meant for the realisation of money, and the criminal court exercising jurisdiction to grant custody bail or anticipatory bail is not expected to act as a recovery agent to realise the dues of the complainant/informant, and that too, without any trial.
• The conduct of the petitioner in not misusing the liberty speaks in his favour, and that also satisfies one of the basic conditions that the petitioner may not abscond during the trial.
• The accused has an inherent right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, which principle flows from Article 21 of the Constitution of India.