Delhi High Court – Orders
Sh Kashinath Hazari vs State Govt Of Nct Ofdelhi, India on 10 March, 2026
$~1
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ BAIL APPLN. 2771/2024
SH KASHINATH HAZARI .....Petitioner
Through: Counsel for accused/applicant
(appearance not given)
versus
STATE GOVT OF NCT OFDELHI, INDIA .....Respondent
Through: Mr. Amit Ahlawat, APP for State
with IO/ASI Surender.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE GIRISH KATHPALIA
ORDER
% 10.03.2026
1. The accused/applicant seeks anticipatory bail in case FIR No.
204/2024 of Police Station Narela for offence under Section 420/406/34
IPC.
1.1 This anticipatory bail application was taken up for the first time on
06.08.2024 before the predecessor bench for hearing and after referral of the
dispute to the mediation centre, the accused/applicant was granted interim
protection from arrest till next date. That interim protection continued on
date to date basis before different predecessor benches. Today, this matter
came up before me for the first time as a part of 179 such old pending bail
applications.
2. In furtherance of previous orders, learned counsel for
accused/applicant seeks another period of 15 days to pay back the complete
allegedly cheated amount. This is strongly opposed by learned counsel for
complainant de facto as well as learned prosecutor assisted by IO/ASI
Surender. It is trite that bail court is not a court for recovery of money. In
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this regard, the legal position is discussed in the judgment titled as Umesh
Verma vs State, 2025 SCC OnLine Del 8078. In view of the legal and
factual position discussed hereafter, I find no reason to adjourn the matter.
As such I have heard learned counsel for accused/applicant and learned APP
for State assisted by learned counsel for complainant de facto.
3. Broadly speaking, the allegation against accused/applicant is that
being the Managing Director of a travel company namely, EWD Hotels, he
collected money from 100 individuals to the total tune of Rs.17,00,000/- in
February-March 2023 for arranging a trip to Thailand during the period from
16.04.2023 to 28.04.2023. The said amount was collected by the
accused/applicant under the pretext of arranging air tickets and hotel
vouchers. But no flight ticket was supplied by the accused/applicant to
complainant de facto. Rather, the accused/applicant and other directors of
EWD Hotels became untraceable. In the course of investigation, it also came
out that the PNR numbers provided by the accused/applicant to the
complainant de facto were fake.
4. Learned counsel for accused/applicant contends that a simple
commercial transaction has been given colour of criminality and no offence
of cheating is made out. It is contended by learned counsel that since the
accused/applicant transmitted the collected money to the concerned airline
but the latter became insolvent and could not issue flight tickets, the
accused/applicant cannot be held liable. Further, it is contended by learned
counsel for accused/applicant that the IO has not been fairly investigating
the case. It is also contended by learned counsel that the accused/applicant
has already returned partial amount to the complainant de facto, so he
deserves indulgence of anticipatory bail.
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5. Learned APP for State assisted by IO/ASI Surender and by learned
counsel for complainant de facto strongly opposes grant of anticipatory bail,
submitting that the accused/applicant furnished forged PNR numbers to the
complainant de facto, which goes to show that it is not a simple case of
commercial transaction. Further, it is also contended that the concerned
airline became insolvent much later.
6. At this stage, learned counsel for accused/applicant on instructions of
his client seeks permission to withdraw this anticipatory bail application
with liberty to file afresh pleading further details along with documents
reflecting that the money received by the accused/applicant in February-
March 2023 was transmitted by him to the concerned airline for arranging
flight tickets for April 2023 and also the documents reflecting booking of
the hotels prior to April 2023.
7. As requested, the anticipatory bail application is dismissed as
withdrawn with liberty as sought.
GIRISH KATHPALIA, J
MARCH 10, 2026/ry
This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above.
The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 10/03/2026 at 21:32:00
