Patna High Court – Orders
Jitendra Kumar vs The State Of Bihar Through Spl. … on 8 April, 2025
Author: Anjani Kumar Sharan
Bench: Anjani Kumar Sharan
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
CRIMINAL MISCELLANEOUS No.31143 of 2024
Arising Out of PS. Case No.-2 Year-2021 Thana- VIGILANCE District- Patna
======================================================
Jitendra Kumar s/o - Shri Kamta Prasad R/O - Dwarika Puri ,Road no 1
Hanuman nagar, Kankarbagh, Patna- 800020(the then Registrar, Magadh Uni-
versity, Bodhgaya)
... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
The State of Bihar through Spl. Vigilance Unit, Patna Bihar
... ... Opposite Party/s
======================================================
Appearance :
For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Hemant Kumar
For the Opposite Party/s: Mr. Arvind Kumar
Mr. Rana Vikram Singh
======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANJANI KUMAR SHARAN
CAV
12 08-04-2025
Heard learned counsels for the parties.
2. The petitioner apprehends his arrest in connection with
Special Case No.48 of 2021, arising out of Special Vigilance
Unit (SVU) P.S. Case No.02 of 2021, registered for the off-
fences u/s 109, 120(B), 201, 420, 467, 468, 471, 409 and 506 of
IPC and Sections 12 r/w, 13(2) r/w. 13(1)(b) of the P.C. Act
1988.
3. As per the FIR, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, while working as
the Vice Chancellor, Magadh University, Body Gaya hatched a
criminal conspiracy with the assistance of Finance Officer, Veer
Kunwar Singh University; the Registrar, Patliputra University,
private firms namely, M/s Poorva Graphics & M/s XLICT Soft-
ware Pvt. Ltd. and other unknown accused persons and fraudu-
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.31143 of 2024(12) dt.-08-04-2025
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lently and dishonestly cheated the Government to the extent of
Rs.20 crores during the year 2019-21 in the matter of purchase
of various items related to the use of University during exami-
nation and otherwise. It is alleged that ignoring the advice of
the competent officer, the accused persons raised bill to the ex-
tent of Rs.20 crores from Magadh University and Veer Kunwar
Singh University without assessing the requirement and violat-
ing the tender procedure and justification of rates etc. The Fi-
nance Officer, Veer Kunwar Singh University and Registrar,
Patliputra University cleared all the fraudulent bills of the pri-
vate firms named above.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the peti-
tioner is innocent and has not committed any offence. He has
been falsely implicated in this case. Petitioner has no criminal
antecedent. Petitioner has been made accused in the case with-
out any evidence against him. Petitioner, who was officiating as
the Registrar of the Patliputra University, was deputed to Mag-
adh University as Registrar by the order of Chancellor of Bihar
where he served in the capacity of Registrar from 23.03.2021 to
02.08.2021. The allegation against the petitioner is that he con-
nived with the prime accused Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then Vice
Chancellor and other accused persons to clear the fraudulent
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.31143 of 2024(12) dt.-08-04-2025
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bills. In this regard, the petitioner, being the Registrar, was
bound to act in accordance with the orders of the Vice Chancel-
lor. The Registrar, under the Bihar State University Act, 1976,
has no financial powers and is obligated to act as the Secretary
of the Senate/Syndicate and the Academic Council.
5. The petitioner, assumed the role of in-charge Registrar at
Magadh University on 23.03.2021. In accordance with the
rules, he signed the cheques with the Finance Officer and Ex-
amination Controller for payments made to the accused persons.
The payments were in connection with their supply of OMR
sheets with question papers, as per the agreement and work or-
ders issued by the University.
6. It is further submitted that during the petitioner’s tenure
from 23.03.2021 to 02.08.2021, a total of Rs.6,62,40,564/- was
paid to the M/s Poorva Graphics and Offset Printers and
Rs.8,93,37,556/- was paid to M/s XLICT Software Pvt. Ltd.
Thus, a total of Rs.15,55,77,700/- was paid to the suppliers in
consideration of their supply work to the University as per the
work orders. The entire process of tendering, agreement, work
order for the supply of OMR sheets along with question papers
and the supply of the same to the firms were completed prior to
the petitioner’s posting at Magadh University. The only remain-
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.31143 of 2024(12) dt.-08-04-2025
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ing task was to settle the bills for the supplier in accordance
with the issued work orders for the completed supplies.
7. The petitioner has also signed the cheques with other of-
ficials as he had no other option but to comply with the Vice-
Chancellor’s direction. In the present case, the Financial Advi-
sor has approved the payment and recommended payments to
the concerned firms. The allegation of fraudulent withdrawal of
Rs.15,55,77,700/- and misappropriation by the petitioner is
false because it is not the case of the prosecution that payments
were made without any supply of ordered materials rather the
allegation is that the question papers and OMR sheets supplied
by the private firms were kept unused. Therefore, the petitioner
is not responsible for the orders of the supply. The petitioner
was never involved in any agreement between the University
and the private firms for the supply of question papers and
OMR sheets.
8. It is further submitted that the further allegation of the
prosecution is that the petitioner conspired with the University
officials in the illegal payment of security guards amounting to
Rs.9,81,824/- but the matter of fact is that the petitioner has au-
thorized payments based on recommendations and approvals
made by other officials of Magadh University. He was not the
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.31143 of 2024(12) dt.-08-04-2025
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custodian of the records in which the attendance of the security
guards were maintained. The officials who are custodian of af-
fairs of security guards have recommended for payment and ac-
cordingly the petitioner after getting clearance from Vice Chan-
cellor, Finance Officer and Finance Advisor, the petitioner put
his signature on cheques with other officials.
9. He further submitted that Mr. D.P. Tiwary, the then Vice
Chancellor of Veer Kunwar Singh University, under whom the
petitioner worked gave his statement before the Investigating
Agency and has said nothing against the petitioner, he has only
stated against co-accused Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
10. Learned counsel for the petitioner relied upon the judg-
ment of the Apex Court in the case of Mahdoom Bava Vs. CBI
reported in 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 218 Cr. Appeal No.915/2016.
He further relied upon the case of Maghavendra Pratap Singh
@ Pankaj Singh vs. The State of Chhattisgarh reported in
(2023) 4 S.C.R. 829 and Musheer Alam vs. State of UP and
Anr. Reported in (2025) SCC OnLine SC 116.
11. It is further submitted that the petitioner has fully cooper-
ation in the investigation and has not been arrested during the
course of investigation. He relied upon the judgment of Satyen-
dra Kumar Antil Vs. CBI & Ors. in SLP No.5191 of 2021. Fur-
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.31143 of 2024(12) dt.-08-04-2025
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ther, after investigation the S.V.U. has filed charge sheet and
now S.V.U. is not required to do custodial interrogation against
the petitioner as he is ready to cooperate in the trial.
12. Learned counsel for the Special Vigilance Unit opposed
the prayer for bail. It is submitted that the work order to the
vendors was placed without any tender and accordingly pay-
ment was done. The question papers printed by M/s/ Poorva
Graphics remained useless causing loss of Rs.8,93,00,000/- to
the University. It is also alleged that the petitioner made pay-
ment of Rs.9,81,824/- and Rs.18,19,147/- by way of payment of
security guard but during the course of investigation it tran-
spired that less number of guards were deployed in comparison
to the agreement and civil guards were deployed in place of ex-
service man. All these allegations against the petitioner shows
that the petitioner was directly involved in the alleged economic
offence.
13. Learned counsel for the SVU relied upon the judgment of
the Apex Court in the case of Devinder Kumar Bansal vs. The
State of Punjab (Special Leave to Appeal (CRL). No.3247 of
2025) reported in 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 291:-
23. The presumption of innocence, by itself, can-
not be the sole consideration for grant of anticipa-
tory bail. The presumption of innocence is one of
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.31143 of 2024(12) dt.-08-04-2025
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the considerations, which the court should keep in
mind while considering the plea for anticipatory
bail. The salutary rule is to balance the cause of
the accused and the cause of the public justice.
Over solicitous homage to the accused’s liberty
can, sometimes, defeat the cause of public justice.
24. If liberty is to be denied to an accused to en-
sure corruption free society, then the Courts
should not hesitate in denying such liberty. Where
overwhelming considerations in the nature of
aforesaid require denial of anticipatory bail, it has
to be denied. It is altogether a different thing to
say that once the investigation is over and charge
sheet is filed, the Court may consider to grant reg-
ular bail to a public servant- accused of indulging
in corruption.
25. Avarice is a common frailty of mankind and
Robert Walpole’s famous pronouncement that all
men have their price, notwithstanding the un-
savoury cynicism that it suggests, is not very far
from truth. As far back as more than two centuries
ago, it was Burke who cautioned: “Among a peo-
ple generally corrupt, liberty cannot last long”. In
more recent years, Romain Rolland lamented that
France fell because there was corruption without
indignation. Corruption has, in it, very dangerous
potentialities. Corruption, a word of wide connota-
tion has, in respect of almost all the spheres of our
day to day life, all the world over, the limited
meaning of allowing decisions and actions to be
Patna High Court CR. MISC. No.31143 of 2024(12) dt.-08-04-2025
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influenced not by the rights or wrongs of a case
but by the prospects of monetary gains or other
selfish considerations.
26. If even a fraction of what was the vox pupuli
about the magnitude of corruption to be true, then
it would not be far removed from the truth, that it
is the rampant corruption indulged in with im-
punity by highly placed persons that has led to
economic unrest in this country. If one is asked to
name one sole factor that effectively arrested the
progress of our society to prosperity, undeniably it
is corruption. If the society in a developing coun-
try faces a menace greater than even the one from
the hired assassins to its law and order, then that is
from the corrupt elements at the higher echelons of
the Government and of the political parties.
14. I have heard the parties at length and perused the record.
It is admitted fact that the petitioner is also involved in the
present case and similarly situated co-accused has been denied
anticipatory bail by this Court in Cr. Misc. No.74836 of 2024
dated 13.02.2025, and also considering the ratio laid down by
the Apex Court in the case of Devinder Kumar Bansal (supra)
that if liberty is to be denied to an accused to ensure corruption
free society, then the Courts should not hesitate in denying such
liberty. Where overwhelming considerations in the nature of
aforesaid require denial of anticipatory bail, it has to be denied.
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It is altogether a different thing to say that once the investiga-
tion is over and charge sheet is filed, the Court may consider to
grant regular bail to a public servant- accused of indulging in
corruption.
15. Considering the foregoing discussions, I am not inclined
to grant bail to the petitioner. The prayer for grant of bail on his
behalf is hereby rejected.
16. Accordingly, this application stands dismissed.
(Anjani Kumar Sharan, J)
shikha/-
U T
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