CUTTACK: THE Orissa High Court on Friday adjourned hearing till September 3 on the petition filed by Artha Tatwa (AT) group chief Pradeep Sethy claiming ‘double jeopardy’ for his release from jail as he has already completed the seven years sentence ordered by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CBI), Bhubaneswar on April 6, 2017.
Double jeopardy is the 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 May 13, 2013, filed the petition on June 30. 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.
The bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice BR Sarangi adjourned hearing on Sethy’s petition after the State counsel sought more time to file response. Earlier on July 21, another bench comprising of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice SK Mishra had issued notice while expecting the Assistant Solicitor General of India (CBI) and Additional Government Advocate for the State “to obtain instructions in the matter” when it is taken up next on August 14. Sethy filed the petition on June 30.
Section 300(1) of Criminal Procedure Code 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 same - criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery for cheating.
Sethy 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 stated that Sethy was given maximum sentence of seven years in the first case after he pleaded guilty to the crime of committing fraud. 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.