Bombay HC grants pre-arrest bail to Farhan Azmi in cheating case – India Today

The Bombay High Court has granted pre-arrest bail to businessman Farhan Azmi, son of Maharashtra MLA Abu Azmi, against whom an FIR of cheating was lodged at the Bandra police station in 2018.

Azmi had approached the high court in 2018 itself and had been granted interim relief. The case in Bandra had been filed by his business partner. According to the FIR, the complainant, Kashif Sardar Khan, wanted to open a restaurant in the Colaba area of South Mumbai and, since Azmi already had a hotel there and knew the area well, Khan trusted him to look for a place.

Azmi, according to the complaint, looked for a place and got an agreement drawn between Khan and the owner of the place, Jai Lalwani . A security deposit of Rs 13,50,000 was handed over to Lalwani and the monthly rent was decided between the parties.

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A few months later, however, Khan got to know that the location for which he had shelled out the amount was under litigation and Lalwani told him that he was actually not the owner. Khan wanted his money back and was told by Lalwani that that Azmi had asked him to transfer the money to the account of a company called ‘Kats Euro Cafe’. This account, according to Khan, was handled by Azmi, who later transferred the entire amount to another of his personal accounts.

Azmi, through his lawyers Sujit Shelar and Abaad Ponda, told the bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal that the nature of the case was purely civil. They said that Khan had also been in the hotel business for the last several years and that he, along with Azmi and another person, had formed a limited liability partnership firm under the name of ‘Chai Coffee Food and Beverage LLP’.

The name of the firm was subsequently changed to ‘Khakhai Coffee Shop LLP’. In 2016, Khan, Azmi and the other person resigned from the partnership firm and Khan’s wife and another person were inducted as partners in the firm.

The lawyers told the court that Khan and Azmi already have a civil dispute in the form of arbitration pending, which includes a civil dispute to which criminal colour thereof has been attributed by Khan in order to arm twist and pressurise Azmi.

Azmi further stated that there was absolutely no offence which had been committed by him and the transfer of Rs 13,50,000 was towards the royalties as per the oral agreement between them.

While advocate Ali Khashif Khan appearing for Khan had opposed Azmi’s bail application, the government pleader JS Lohokare, on instructions of the investigating officer, made a categorical statement that the investigation in this case is almost over and the investigating agency does not want to arrest any of the accused.

Justice Sarang Kotwal noted, “prima facie, there is sufficient substance in the submission of Advocate Abaad Ponda (Azmi’s lawyer) that Azmi was entitled to withdraw that amount and to use it as per his requirements.” With this, Justice Kotwal granted the relief to Azmi.

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