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CR.RA/459/2010 3/ 3 ORDER
IN
THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
CRIMINAL
REVISION APPLICATION No. 459 of 2010
=========================================================
SAROJ
RAVINDRA SAWARKAR - Applicant(s)
Versus
CENTRAL
BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION & 1 - Respondent(s)
=========================================================
Appearance
:
MR
HARMISH K SHAH for
Applicant(s) : 1,
MR YN RAVANI for Respondent(s) : 1,
MR KARTIK
PANDYA, APP for Respondent(s) :
2,
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CORAM
:
HONOURABLE
MR.JUSTICE AKIL KURESHI
Date
: 05/10/2010
ORAL
ORDER
The
petitioner is wife of original accused. He is facing charge under
Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 read with Section 120-B of the IPC and
Sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. CBI
has investigated into said charges. Charge-sheet is already filed.
Charge is however, yet to be framed. Bank locker running in name of
the petitioner was sealed by CBI. She therefore, applied for
de-freezing of locker No. 72 of Punjab National Bank, Peddar Road,
Mumbai. Below such application being Criminal Misc. Application No.
32/2010 dated 17.2.2010 CBI court passed impugned order on 4.8.2010
rejecting the request. Thereupon the petitioner has approached the
High Court.
Upon
perusal of the document on record and hearing counsel for the
parties, I find that before the CBI Court, CBI had filed reply dated
4.3.2010 in the said application in which it is clearly stated that
observation memo dated 19.2.2010 does speak about few gold items
found in locker and passports of the accused and the petitioner. It
is clearly stated that none of the articles were seized and that key
of the locker was returned back. A letter was addressed to the bank
for stopping operation of the locker in view of investigation of the
case. However, it is not the case of the prosecution that same was
obtained by the accused out of defrauded amount. It was further
stated that :
It
is submitted that though the locker in question is not a relied upon
article of this case and the link between the contents of the locker
and proceeds of the crime could not be established during
investigation, it will not be out of place to mention that the bank
who has been put to loss for more than Rs. 100 crores has not been
able to recover the amount lost. In case the locker is allowed to be
operated by the applicant, nothing will be left to the Court to
recover the dues by imposing fine in case the accused is convicted
after completion of trial.
PRAYER
In
the light of the above submission it is humbly prayed to this
Hon’ble Court that till the time the rightful owner of the articles
mentioned in the observation memo and those seized during searches
conducted at the residence of the accused is established before the
Hon’ble Court, request of the applicant Smt. Saroj R. Sawarkar may
please be rejected in the interest of justice
When
the CBI is clearly stating before the Court that items lying in the
locker were not acquired from the defrauded amount by the accused,
there is thereafter no further question of seizing article or
putting any restriction on such articles for use and enjoyment of
the owner thereof.
In
the result, impugned order dated 4.8.2010 is quashed. Application of
the petitioner being Criminal Misc. Application No. 32/2010 dated
17.2.2010 is allowed. CBI order restricting the operation of the
bank locker No. 72 of Punjab National Bank, Peddar Road, Mumbai,
stands lifted. The petitioner will be entitled not only to take away
articles lying in the said locker, will also be able to use the
locker for her own use.
Insofar
as passport of the accused is concerned, it would be open for the
CBI to have seizure or impounding of the passport, if not already so
ordered previously.
Petition
is disposed of accordingly.
(Akil
Kureshi,J.)
(raghu)
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