Bombay High Court upholds order cancelling customs official’s bail in fraud case

The Bombay High Court has upheld the order of the Mumbai sessions court, which had cancelled the bail of a customs house clearing agent over an alleged Rs 1.32 crore fraud.
The case had been registered by a businessman, Altaf Shaikh, who imports cosmetics from China whose one consignment of four containers was detained by the customs department for undervaluation in 2017.
The issue led to Shaikh realising that he had allegedly been defrauded, following which he registered a case. The customs agent, Apurva Mehta, was arrested by the police and was granted bail by the Mumbai Sessions court in May 2023 with the condition that he would deposit Rs 40 lakhs. An amount of Rs 10 lakhs was to be deposited to secure his release while the next Rs 30 lakhs was to be deposited in six instalments of Rs 5 lakhs each.
However, after being released, when Mehta did not pay up the rest of the money that had been imposed in the bail condition, an application was moved and the Mumbai Sessions court cancelled Mehta’s bail and directed him to surrender. Mehta challenged this order in the Bombay High Court and also filed another plea seeking modification of the bail order, calling it harsh and excessive.
Both these petitions came up for hearing before the bench of Justice Manish Pitale.
Advocate Marmik Shah appearing for Shaikh opposed the petitions and pointed to the chargesheet filed in the case and bank transaction details to show to the court about the evidence collected in the alleged fraud case. Shah further pointed out that while seeking bail, Mehta had made a voluntary statement to deposit an amount of Rs 40 lakhs.
The bench saw that Mehta did deposit the first instalment of Rs 10 lakhs, as a consequence of which, he was released from custody. He was expected to deposit further instalments of Rs 5 lakhs each from July 2023 onwards which he had failed to do. The bench also saw that while seeking bail, Mehta had made a voluntary statement, and it was not as if the condition to deposit the amount was imposed by the court.
The bench also noted that Mehta had failed to abide by the condition, and therefore, sufficient ground was made out for allowing the application seeking cancellation of his bail.
“This court has independently considered the material on record, particularly the entire charge-sheet brought to the notice of this Court on
behalf of the first informant. The material on record belies the claims made by Mehta and indicates that having taken advantage of the order of the Sessions Court, directing his release upon depositing the first installment of Rs.10 lakhs, Mehta did not make any effort to deposit the remaining installments and instead came forward with theories that are not borne out by the material on record,” said Justice Pitale.
The bench refused to show any indulgence and granted Mehta two weeks time to surrender. The bench added that if Mehta failed to surrender then the concerned police officers shall take necessary steps to take him into custody.