IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Criminal Writ Jurisdiction Case No.1004 of 2022 Arising Out of PS. Case No.-6 Year-2017 Thana- C.B.I CASE District- Patna ====================================================== 1. FIROZ ALAM, Son of Zafiruddin, Resident of Village - C/o Md. Nasimuddin , Millat Colony, Sector-2, Phulwarisharif, Patna, Presently Residing at Panderpala, Dhanbad, P.O.- Polytechnic, P.s.- Bank More, Distt.- Dhanbad. 2. Md. Ashraf Mobin Ansari @ Md. Ashraf Mobin, Son of Mobin Ansari, Resident of Village - Moghalpura, Jalwa Toli, Near Raushan Sahid Mazar, patna City (Bihar)-800008 ... ... Petitioner/s Versus 1. The Union of India , Through the Director , Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi. Govt. of India. 2. The Superintendent of Police, Anti Corruption Branch, Central Bureau of Investigation, ACB, Patna. Bihar 3. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Anti Corruption Branch, Central Bureau of Investigation, ACB, Patna, Bihar. 4. Mr. P.K. Jha (Investigating officer of the Case), Additional Superintendent of Police, CBI, ACB, Patna, Bihar. ... ... Respondent/s ====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Majid Mahboob Khan, Advocate For the CBI : Mr. Avanish Kumar Singh, Advocate SPP, CBI Mr. Ambar Narayan, Advocate Mrs. Barkha, Advocate Mr. Mukul Kr. Singh, Advocate ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BIBEK CHAUDHURI ORAL ORDER 8 16-01-2025 The petitioners are employees of a private school under the name and style of Mother International Academy at Phulwarisharif at Patna. By filing the instant writ petition, the petitioners have prayed for issuance of writ of critorari to quash the entire prosecution case in connection with RC 06(A)/2017 corresponding to Special Case No. 05/2017 instituted for Patna High Court CR. WJC No.1004 of 2022(8) dt.16-01-2025 2/5 offences punishable under Sections 120(B)/420/467/468 of the IPC and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. 2. The present stage of the above-mentioned case is that the CBI submitted charge-sheet against the petitioners and others and the case is pending before the learned Special Judge, CBI, 1st Court at Patna for trial. RC 06(A)/2017 was instituted against the Directors of Mother International Academy, the present petitioners and others on the allegation that the present petitioners in collusion with the officials of Bihar Awami Co- operative Bank Ltd. opened as many as 41 bank accounts in fictitious names of persons and deposited different sums of money in the said account during the period of demonetization and got the legal denominations by depositing money which were declared demonetized and thereby accumulated huge amount of money. 3. It is the specific defense of the petitioners that they are mere assistants of the said private school, they worked under the directions of the Directors of the school. The Directors directed them to open the accounts in the name of different teachers, employees and even outsiders and the petitioners introduced them in their banking documents. They did not Patna High Court CR. WJC No.1004 of 2022(8) dt.16-01-2025 3/5 misappropriate any money. They also did not commit any cheating or frogery as alleged and the allegation of corruption does not arise against the petitioners. 4. It is also submitted by the learned Advocate for the petitioners that as a sub-ordinate staff, the petitioners were bound to follow the direction of the Directors of the said school. The money which were legalized through the said Bank was obtained by the Directors. The Directors are on bail under the provision of Section 167(2) of the CrPC. The present petitioners are languishing in custody as a result of false charge-sheet being filed against them. 5. Learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the CBI, on the other hand, refers to the counter-affidavit filed by the CBI. In paragraph 9 of the said counter-affidavit, it is clearly stated by the CBI that petitioner no. 1 was the representative of Md. Arshad Ahmad. He was introduced by Tanweer Ahmad to Abhay Kumar, Assistant of the main branch of the Bank in November 2016 for opening the accounts in the main branch saying that the persons are related to Arshad Ahmad, Director of the BACBL and Tanweer Ahmad and thereby Abhay Kumar had not ensured the physical presence of the customers at the time of opening the accounts as per the direction of Tanweer Ahmad and Patna High Court CR. WJC No.1004 of 2022(8) dt.16-01-2025 4/5 thereby Abhay Kumar opened 14 numbers of accounts without physical presence and without verifying the original records of the customers. Thus, Abhay Kumar, Manager of the Patna City branch of the said Bank in collusion with Arshad Ahmad and petitioner no. 1 credited the legal money equivalent to demonetized money and subsequently, the said money was withdrawn keeping the account holders in dark. It is also contended on behalf of the CBI that in all 48 accounts were opened during demonetization in November 2016. The account holders were kept in dark for opening the accounts in their names by the accused persons and in commission of offence, frogery was committed in 20 accounts out of 48 accounts spread across three branches of the bank out of 20 accounts which were opened by committing forgery, the petitioner no. 2 had forged 2 account and petitioner no. 1 had forged one account. During investigation, the said documents submitted to the Bank were examined by the Government Examiner of Questioned Document Bureau and it was found over the said documents were forged. It is also submitted by the learned Advocate for the respondents that the Director of the school purchased numbers of 4-wheelers in the name of the petitioner no. 1 and the profit was illegally enjoyed by one of the Directors of the said school Patna High Court CR. WJC No.1004 of 2022(8) dt.16-01-2025 5/5 in which the petitioner is in collusion. 6. Thus, collusive act of the petitioners has been established prima facie, the charge-sheet has already been filed, cognizance has been taken, at this stage quashment of criminal proceeding cannot be allowed in favour of the petitioners. Accordingly, the instant writ petition is thus, dismissed. 7. However, the learned Special judge, CBI, 1st Court at Patna is directed to commence the trial of the case at the earliest and take endeavor to conclude the trial of the case within 10 months from the date of commencement of trial. Suraj Dubey/- (Bibek Chaudhuri, J) U T