Anil Tuteja vs Central Bureau Of Investigation

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The applicant, a retired IAS officer, filed his first anticipatory bail application before the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur under Section 482 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, apprehending arrest in connection with Crime No. RC2162025A0006 dated 16-04-2025 registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The FIR was originally registered by the ACB/EOW as Crime No. 49/2024 and subsequently transferred to the CBI by the State Government of Chhattisgarh under Section 6 of the Delhi Police Establishment Act, 1946, for offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The applicant contended that he had been facing successive and overlapping FIRs registered by multiple agencies including the State Police, Enforcement Directorate, ACB/EOW, and CBI over a period of nearly ten years, relating to various scams including the Custom Rice Milling Scam, Coal Scam, Mahadev Online Betting Scam and DMF Scam. It was argued that arrest steps were initiated only when the applicant was on the verge of securing bail in earlier cases, constituting a deliberate attempt to perpetuate incarceration. The applicant approached this Court pursuant to liberty granted by the Supreme Court in its order dated 09-03-2026 in SLP (Crl.) No. 19892 of 2025.

The application raised issues concerning the propriety of successive FIRs by multiple agencies based on overlapping allegations, the applicant's long service record as a civil servant, and parity with the co-accused S.C. Verma who had been granted anticipatory bail by the Supreme Court. The Court reserved its order on 27-04-2026 and delivered it on 15-05-2026.

Catchwords: anticipatory bail retired IAS officer CBI Prevention of Corruption Act WhatsApp chats successive FIRs overlapping arrests evergreening of custody transfer of FIR Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 liberty granted by Supreme Court parity with co-accused