SNS KASHMIR
Srinagar: A court here Thursday dismissed the bail plea of man from Gujarat, Kiran Patel, who conned the security establishment in Jammu and Kashmir into believing him to be a an official in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and got the requisite perks prior to his arrest earlier this month.
Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar Raja Muhammad Tasleem dismissed the conman’s bail plea as “devoid of any merit”.The court had reserved its decision on the plea on March 20 after hearing the counsel representing Patel and Additional Public Prosecutor (APP).
“I am of the considered opinion that arguments advanced by APP are just, proper, and appealing and carry much weight and on the other hand I respectfully disagree with the submission put forth by the counsel for the applicant (Patel) because in case, at this stage, if discretion of bail is exercised in favour of the accused, it will definitely destroy the very fabric of the investigation,” reads the CJM’s order. “Resultantly, in my considered opinion the instant application is devoid of any merit which deserves to be rejected, hence rejected.
”The court observed that there was weight in the prosecution’s claims that enlarging Patel on bail “shall definitely destroy the very fabric of the investigation”.In its report to oppose the bail application, Police said, Patel had prima facie forged and manufactured some documents including some visiting cards on the basis of which he has defrauded not only a single person or group of person but “extremely elevated class of the society including high officials of the civil administration and Police authorities”.At the end of the day, the Police said, Patel succeeded in getting Z category security, a bulletproof vehicle, and “brazenly” enjoyed five star protocol for a considerable period of time.“The documents, visiting cards, and cell phone of the accused person have been sent for FSL examination on the basis of which alleged crime has been commuted, however, the FSL examination report has not been received by the investigating agency,” the Police said.It said that the investigation conducted so far had suggested that the accused had visited most sensitive locations and areas of Kashmir, which were highly protected and extremely sensitive as far as the present security scenario of Kashmir was concerned.“Hence this aspect of the matter has necessarily to be probed thoroughly by the investigating machinery as to how and with what motive and object the accused visited these locations and areas,” the court said.
.The police contends, “There is enough material available on the file, suggestive of the fact that while meeting different and a variety of people and conducting meeting with highly elevated officials of civil administration and Police the accused may have received hefty amount for different purpose, which areas seem not to have been investigated so far.”It said: “No recoveries have been made by the investigating agency so far, hence a detailed and thorough investigation is also required to be conducted as far as this area of the matter is concerned. The meticulous and careful perusal of case diary files and material available on record reflects that during this all period some more persons have remained closely connected with the accused person whose nexus with the accused person requires proper investigation.”Police said that as far as “sophisticated and well planned criminal activities of the accused are concerned” a well-knit network of the accused could not be ruled out in terms of investigation so far conducted.“Resultantly there is every reasonable apprehension that in case the accused is released on bail he shall try to contact prosecution witnesses and shall definitely try to win over prosecution witnesses and shall also destroy the evidence which has not been collected by the investigating agency so far,” Police said. While the Police in its report indicated that “more surprisingly the accused has posed to be Additional Director (Strategy and Campaign) PMO, New Delhi which in normal course has not to be taken lightly”.“Hence again a thorough investigation is required to be conducted as to what could be the other possible connection of the accused which can be checked, scanned and controlled at the initial stage, so that an ugly situation is not again erupted,” the report said.