MUMBAI, Dec. 15 -- The Bombay High Court has held that an accused cannot be remanded to judicial custody merely for not applying for bail, particularly when he was never arrested during the investigation and had consistently appeared before the court in response to summons. The ruling came in a case stemming from a 2023 FIR alleging that partners of AS Agri and Aqua Limited Liability Partnership cheated its investors of Rs.350 crore by promising high returns. The petitioner, Santosh Nandgaonkar, who was involved in the management of the LLP, was not named as an accused in the original chargesheet filed in August 2023, but his name was added through a supplementary chargesheet filed in January 2024. Nandgaonkar was never arrested during the investigation and claimed to have cooperated fully with the probe, appearing before the court whenever summoned. However, on November 4 this year, a special judge ordered his arrest on the grounds that he had not obtained a bail and remanded him to judicial custody. After his bail application was rejected on November 25, Nandgaonkar approached the high court, challenging the . "unlawful and arbitrary" remand. Quashing the remand order, a division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Shyam C. Chandak observed on December 8 that no question of detention arose, as the petitioner was not in custody and had always responded to summons, directing jail authorities to release him immediately....