- (1.)This is fourth bail application under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. for grant of bail. Applicant Vinay Choudhary was arrested on 10/04/2019 in connection with Crime No.12/2019 registered at Police Station, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhopal (M.P.) for the offence punishable under Sections 120- B, 420, 468, 471 of the IPC and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 7 read with Section13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
(2.)The earlier bail applications filed by the applicant were dismissed on merit by this Court vide orders dated 25/06/2019, 27/09/2019 and 11/02/2020 passed in M.Cr.C.No.19435/2019, 38330/2019 and 476/2020 respectively.
(3.). As per prosecution story, M.P. State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " œMPSEDC" ) is a body working under State of M.P. Department of Science and Technology. Department of Information Technology, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh adopted the e-Tendering System using online platform in 2006. In the year 2012 Government of Madhya Pradesh appointed MPSEDC, as the Nodal Agency f o r MP e-procurement portal. MPSEDC selected M/s Tata Consultancy Services with Antares Systems Ltd. as the new Implementation Agency for end-to-end e-Procurement solutions. The agreement with TCS and Antares was signed in the year 2013. The New Service Providers undertook the Customization, Integration, Implementation and Maintenance of Single, Unitary, Web Based e-Procurement Software (Portal) with the specified modules which also include E-Tendering. Co-accused Manohar M.N. was the Vice President of Antares Systems Ltd. and was the project in-charge on behalf of the company. Co-accused Nandkishor Brahme was posted as OSD in MPSEDC from the year 2012 and was assigned the duty as Nodal Officer of E-Tendering Project. In E-Tendering Project, MPSEDC made a platform available to various Government Departments for floating tenders. In the tendering processes the concerned Department which issued the tender uploaded its tender on the portal, on which last date of filing tender and the time of its opening was mentioned. While issuing the tender, the concerned officer also attached the public key of his digital signature. The tenderer after registering himself on MP e-Procurement portal filled the tender and after filing the tender, submitted the tender on the portal after it was encrypted by the public key of the officer concerned attached with the tender. After submission of the tender, no departmental officer, e-tendering company or other person could open the tender before its opening time.