Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to Chhattisgarh Coal Levy scam accused-Suryakant Tiwari, Ranu Sahu, Saumya Chaurasia, Sameer Vishnoi and others.

While ex-civil servants Saumya Chaurasia, Ranu Sahu and others were granted interim bail in the Chhattisgarh Coal Levy scam case in March this year, and accused-Laxmikant Tiwari, Manish Upadhyay and Parekh Kurre in early May, some fresh bail pleas were filed by the accused seeking bail in other cases, such as one registered over the DMF scam.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta today granted interim bail in all the cases listed before it. Notably, as part of the bail conditions, the Court directed that accused-Suryakant Tiwari, Ranu Sahu, Saumya Chaurasia and Sameer Vishnoi shall not stay in Chhattisgarh. "These are persons who have potentiality to influence the investigation", Justice Kant reasoned.

The order was dictated thus:

"The petitioners are directed to be released on interim bail till further orders, subject to furnishing bail bonds to the satisfaction of the trial court.

In the case of Suryakant Tiwari, Ranu Sahu, Sameer Vishnoi and Saumya Chaurasia, it is directed that they shall not stay in the state of Chhattisgarh till further orders, except that they shall remain present before the investigating agency or the trial court, as and when required. They are further directed to furnish their addresses of stay outside the state within 1 week of their release. they shall inform the place of their stay to the jurisdictional station...

In the event the petitioners are found to be attempting to contact witnesses and/or influence them in any manner or tampering with evidence, this will be taken as misuse of concession of interim bail...

The petitioners are directed to deposit their passports with the special courts immediately on release on interim bail...they shall join the investigation and fully cooperate."

The Court clarified that the interim arrangement is without prejudice to the respondents' contentions and no equitable consideration shall accrue in the petitioners' favor as a result of the interim order.

After dictating the order, Justice Kant commented, "we are also prima facie satisfied...the amount of property this one lady has made...that speaks [volumes]...". When it was requested that another bail condition be imposed on Suryakant Tiwari restraining him from contacting his relatives to whom notices have been issued by prosecution agencies, the judge said,

"You have to create some sort of confidence in the witnesses...you must be issuing notices but they are afraid that they will be arrested if they come...if you create this kind of environment, what would be the fate of investigation!? Those persons who can be really helpful in taking the investigation to a logical conclusion, not only witness protection principles will apply to them, you need to infuse some confidence in them that you will protect them. Then only they will come out with the truth. You leave them to the mercy of these mighty [...], what will happen?"

During the hearing, the bench was informed about the status of interim bail of the accused in different cases being pursued by Enforcement Directorate and State authorities qua different "scams". On a specific Court query as to how many of the accused are out on interim bail, Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave replied, "I counted 13 in the EOW...which is state of Chhattisgarh...which leaves 5 who are not in EOW...".

Appearance: Senior Advocates Siddharth Dave, Mukta Gupta and Siddharth Aggarwal, Adv Tushar Giri, Advocate Harshwardhan Parganiha(for petitioners); ASG Aishwarya Bhati and DAG Ravi Sharma

Case Title: RANU SAHU Versus STATE OF CHHATTISGARH, SLP(Crl) No. 15941/2024 (and connected cases)