Manik Roy And ORS v. The State Of West Bengal

04.01.2022 Item no.09.

Court No.1.

S. De (Rejected) CIRCUIT BENCH OF CALCUTTA HIGH COURT AT JALPAIGURI (Via Video Conference) CRM No. 1276 of 2021 In Re: An Application for Anticipatory Bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with Kotwali Police Station Case No.144 of 2021 Dated 20.03.2021 under Sections 406/409/34 of the Indian Penal Code.

And In the matter of: Manik Roy & Ors.

......Petitioners.

Mr. Pradip Bagchi ......for the Petitioners.

Mr. Abhijit Sarkar, Mr. Saikat Chatterjee, ......for the State.

The petitioners say that they are innocent. False allegations have been levelled against them. The allegation is that the petitioners are members of a Co-operative Society. The petitioner no.1 was entrusted with the responsibility of running the co-operative fair price ration shop. The petitioners in collusion with each other have diverted the ration products and sold them at higher price in black market thereby depriving the people who are entitled to the benefit of the ration products. Thereby the petitioners have made illegal gains for themselves. The petitioners say that they have absolutely no role to play in the alleged offence. They rely on a notification dated June 19, 2020 whereby the Government of West Bengal, Co-

operative Department, appointed a Special Officer to take charge of the affairs of the Co-operative Society.

Be that as it may, the allegations are serious. In this Covid times, if persons entrusted with the responsibility of running fair price ration shops, abuse their power and make illegal gains, the same would spell disaster for the society and the economy. We are not inclined to extend the privilege of anticipatory bail to the petitioners.

The application for anticipatory bail is rejected. C.R.M. No.1276 of 2021 is dismissed.

All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. (Aniruddha Roy, J.) (Arijit Banerjee, J.)