Jyotsna Rewal Dua, J. - (1.)Primarily on the ground that the petitioner, an undertrial prisoner, is entitled for the benefit of 436-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, instant petition for grant of regular bail under Section 439 Cr.P.C. has been preferred by him in FIR No. 11 of 2014 dated 01.03.2014 under Sections 406 & 420 of the Indian Penal Code registered at Police Station CID, Bharari, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.
(2.)Heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through the status report filed by the respondent.
(3.)Bare minimum facts apposite for adjudication of the bail petition as culled out from the status report filed by the respondent are :-
3(i) On 28.02.2014, a complaint was received in the office of Crime Investigation Department, Himachal Pradesh, Shimla. The complainants were (i) Rakesh Wadhwa and Lalit Soni-M/s Shoolini Gas Agency; (ii) Naveen Pal Gupta - M/s Naveen Gas Agency ; (iii) Smt. Poonam Awasthi - M/s Awasthi Gas Service and (iv) Smt. Suman Verma - M/s Sai Gas Agency.

3(ii) The complainants requested for registration of FIR against the five Directors of M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd., namely, (1) Pawan Kumar Verma; (2) Dilip Kumar Verma (petitioner herein); (3) Rakesh Verma ; (4) Vijay Kumar Verma and (5) Ramesh Pandey. Besides these Directors, complaint was also lodged against employees of M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd., namely, (6) Ajit Singh Sood ; (7) Ganesh Prasad Sharma ; (8) Ajay Tiwari : (9) Roop Narayan Shah ; (10) Deepak Chaudhary and (11) Sunil Kumar.

3(iii) Gist of the complaint was that all the complainants were allured by wide publicity and advertisements issued by M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd. for appointment of distributors/dealers for supply of LPG Cylinders in different areas of the State of Himachal Pradesh. The complainants were asked and they accordingly paid a sum of Rs. Two Lacs each as licence fee and rupees Eight Lacs each as security money by way of deposit in the accounts of M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd. The complainants were thereafter appointed as authorized dealers by M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd. for supply of LPG Cylinders in the State of Himachal Pradesh. Appointment letters were issued in their names. Gas connections were issued to several consumers by the Bottling Company. For this also, required payments were made to M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd., which was to regularly supply/refill LPG Cylinders for onward distribution to the consumers. As per the complaint, Company demanded advance payment for supply/refill of LPG Cylinders. Accordingly, huge advance payments were also made by the complainants to M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt, Ltd. However, re-filled LPG Cylinders were not supplied as promised despite repeated requests of the complainants. Alleging cheating, deception, the complainants requested for lodging the FIR against the persons named in the complaint.

3(iv) This eventually resulted in the registration of FIR in question. The investigation ensued. During investigation, it came out that main office of M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd. was in Andheri, Mumbai with regional offices in Kamla Nagar, Delhi and at Chandigarh. These offices were found locked. The Company had stopped supply of gas to the complainants and consumers without any reason and without any prior information causing huge losses to the complainants. Rs. 81,21,623/- was allegedly due from M/s Prachi Gas Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd. towards the complainants.

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