Court grants bail to accused acting as cash courier on Sukesh's instructions

New Delhi [India], August 16 : Delhi's Patiala House Court has recently granted bail to a person accused of acting as a cash courier for Sukesh Chandrasekhar on his instructions.
He has been in custody since August 2021. He is an accused in a case lodged on a complaint filed by Japna Singh. Sukesh is also accused in this case.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Chander Jit Singh granted bail to Deepak Ramdani considering the fact that he is custody for the last three years and some co-accused persons have been granted bail.
ASJ Singh said that it is a trite law, as reiterated by the Supreme Court of India in catena of judgments, that bail is a rule and jail is an exception.
"As noted above, the applicant is in custody for about three years. Trial in the present matter is yet to begin as issue of charge is under consideration and considering the number of witnesses cited on behalf of the state, the conclusion of trial shall take some time," the judge observed.
He further said that it is also a matter of record that some of the co-accused have been admitted to bail in this case and role of the applicant/accused is not much different from them.
"Hence, in view of the above discussion, settled law on this aspect, applicant/accused Deepak
Ramnani is admitted on bail on furnishing of a bail bond in the sum of Rs.50,000 with two sureties, who shall be his family member," the court ordered on August 13.
His first bail application was dismissed on 10.11.2022.
While granting bail, the court noted that the charge-sheet is filed with the allegations of commission of offences under IPC and IT Act. Stringent provisions of MCOCA have not been invoked in the present matter.
" It implies that the twin test on the plea of bail incorporated in MCOCA, as applicable in other cases of applicant/accused, will not be applicable in the present matter," the court observed.
In the reply filed on behalf of the State, reference has been made to the confession statement under Section 18 of MCOCA. The confession being recorded in another case accused is facing trial cannot be read in the present matter, the court held.
Advocate Anant Malik, counsel for the accused argued that trial proceedings are stagnant and did not move an inch since then. Co-accused namely Joel Daniel, Pinki Irani and Avtar Singh Kochhar have been admitted in bail.
It is stated that Ramdani was arrested on 21.08.2021 and he has been in custody since then.
As per the prosecution, accused Sukash Chandrasekhar impersonated as Union Law Secretary for the purpose of cheating and extortion by way of putting the complainant Japna Singh under threat to life as well as on the pretext of arranging relief from the court concerned where matter related to group companies of complainant's husband and for him were pending.
There are allegations of having committed this act by accused Sukash Chandrasekhar in active connivance and criminal conspiracy along with other co-accused including accused Deepak Ramnani.
While opposing the bail, the prosecution argued that there is enough evidence against the accused in the form of recovery of details of M/s Ever Nice Intl. Trading Ltd. from Deepak Ramnani's phone, money extracted from the complainant being transferred to the account of this company based in Hong Kong, image recovered from the mirror image of the said phone.
It was also contended that material available on record is sufficient to show prima facie case against the accused and accused being involved in three other cases, besides the present matter, is a hardened criminal. It is submitted that the application be dismissed.