Prayagraj (UP), Aug 18 The Allahabad High Court has ruled that in special circumstances, a bail plea can directly be filed in a high court, without approaching the sessions court concerned.
"This court is satisfied with the existence of the special circumstances and proceeds to entertain the bail plea. The preliminary objections of the counsel for the informant are accordingly overruled," said Justice Ashutosh Srivastava while granting bail to Ponnuru Shri Nivasalu, a resident of Andhra Pradesh.
It was argued that the applicant, who is 64 years of age, has been falsely implicated in the case for ulterior motives and is languishing in jail since March 21.
The applicant's counsel submitted that the informant's company has a strong presence in Uttar Pradesh's Lalitpur and has been awarded several projects for rehabilitation and modernisation work in the district by the irrigation department.
He submitted that several employees of the informant's company reside in Lalitpur and owe their allegiance to the informant. The applicant and the informant are both residents of Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, and the FIR has been lodged in Lalitpur only to harass the applicant, the lawyer said.
The associates of the applicant have absolutely no understanding of the local language and have been frequently targeted by the local employees of the company, he said, adding that the informant is a former MLA who enjoys strong political influence in Lalitpur.
After going through the records, the court said, "I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the records. The perusal of the records reflects that the FIR was lodged on August 6, 2025, at 11:52 hours and no date or time of occurrence of the incident has been mentioned."
According to the FIR, the alleged incident occurred between 2014 and 2016. No plausible explanation has been offered for the inordinate delay in getting the FIR lodged. The details of the cheques or the amount involved have not been mentioned in the FIR. There is also no averment in the FIR as to what steps were taken by the informant to report the loss of the pre-signed cheques to police or whether any instruction was issued to the bank for stop payment etc.
The court said that the applicant has been falsely implicated in the case cannot be ruled out.
It also pointed out that a civil suit for recovery of money is pending consideration.
Granting the relief to the applicant, the court said considering the facts and circumstances and the nature of the accusations, a case for bail is made out.
