HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court has ruled that the 60/90-day period required for seeking default or statutory bail in criminal cases must be calculated from the date of the Magistrate’s remand order, not from the date of registration of the FIR.
This clarification was made by Justice J Sreenivas Rao while dismissing a bail plea in a high-profile property fraud case.
The judge pointed out that an accused is entitled to default bail if the chargesheet is filed on or after the 61st/91st day, provided the bail application is made before the chargesheet is filed. He further stated that once the right to default bail accrues, it cannot be defeated by a subsequent filing of the chargesheet.
The case involved a 34-year-old man named Koka Raghava Rao, who was arrested following a complaint by his 96-year-old grandfather, also named Koka Raghava Rao, a senior advocate with over 70 years of standing in the High Courts and the Supreme Court.
According to J Vijayalakshmi, counsel for the elder Raghava Rao, the accused had allegedly committed large-scale fraud by misusing a General Power of Attorney granted in December 2023 to facilitate the sale of a flat in Ghaziabad. Instead, he is accused of executing a Development Agreement with M/s Devika Homes the very next day, portraying himself fraudulently as the GPA holder.
The complaint alleged that the accused and others sold properties in Munaganoor village using fabricated death certificates and documents of deceased relatives. Substantial funds were also siphoned off from the complainant’s bank accounts, including `90 lakh from FDRs at UCO Bank, `13.41 lakh from Bank of India, and over `49 lakh from the sale of a Noida flat.
An FIR was registered on January 3, 2025, and the accused was arrested on February 11, 2025. He applied for default bail on the basis of the FIR date, but the court ruled that the remand date—not the FIR—is the starting point for calculating the statutory period.