CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Friday adjourned hearing on the petition filed by Artha Tatwa (AT) group chief Pradeep Sethy claiming ‘double jeopardy’ for his release from jail, till October 6 as the State Government failed to give a reply.The AT Group chief who was convicted in a `200 crore scam has sought intervention against his alleged illegal detention on the ground that he has already served the seven years sentence ordered by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CBI), Bhubaneswar on April 6, 2017.‘Double jeopardy’ is a universally accepted principle that bars a person from being tried and convicted more than once for the same offence.
Sethy, who has been in jail since his arrest on May 13, 2013, filed the petition on June 30. The bench of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice SK Panigrahi adjourned hearing on Sethy’s petition after the State counsel sought more time to file the reply. In the reply, the bench expected the State counsel to clarify whether the series of cases on the same transaction against the AT group chief has already been disposed of after conclusion or the trial is pending.
aIn his petition, Sethy has invoked Section 300(1) of Criminal Procedure Code which states that no one can be tried and convicted for the same offence or even for a different offence based on the same facts. The petitioner said in his case the offences as well as the facts in all the complaints against him are the same - criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery for cheating.
Sethy alleged that he has been prosecuted and punished for the same offences contrary to the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 20 (2) of the Constitution of India. He was convicted for the second time for the same offence and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Khurda on July 3, 2017. On November 15, 2017, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sambalpur, convicted and sentenced him to five years imprisonment, but with a direction that the sentence shall commence after expiry of the sentence in the previous case.
The petition said Sethy was given a maximum sentence of seven years in the first case after he pleaded guilty to the crime of committing fraud and deceiving investors and the conviction. He had accepted that AT Group of companies collected more than `500 crore of which, an amount of `201 crore could not be returned to the investors/depositors. He was also held guilty of the same offences in the two other cases.
He also claimed double jeopardy for quashing all the FIRs registered against him after his conviction as the scope of investigation and charges are the same.