Arshad vs. State Govt of NCT of Delhi
Background
The applicant sought bail in a large cheating case registered with the Economic Offences Wing, where more than 150 people were allegedly defrauded of over Rs. 1 crore through a placement company, and illegal weapons were also recovered from his possession.
Decision Breakdown
The Court found the applicant was not a peripheral figure: he was a direct beneficiary of the cheated money and had personally signed the rental agreement for the company's premises, and forensic tests confirmed the illegality of the recovered weapons. It distinguished his situation from a co-accused who had earlier been granted bail (that person was found to be merely a low-level office employee), so the applicant could not claim equal treatment, and his bail application was dismissed.
Lesson Learnt
Getting bail because a co-accused got bail (the "parity" argument) only works if your actual role in the alleged crime is genuinely comparable: courts look past labels to each person's real level of involvement.