This court heard multiple criminal original petitions for bail filed by parties arrested for economic offences involving fraud, forgery, and cheating against the State of Tamil Nadu (CBI). The court noted the gravity of the charges and ongoing investigation.
Bail petitions were dismissed and petitioners remained in custody.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
Crl.OP.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
Crl.O.P.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
G.K.ILANTHIRAIYAN, J.
The petitioners who were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on 01.03.2022, 01.03.2022, 09.08.2021, 20.09.2020, 09.08.2021, 21.03.2022 respectively for the offences punishable under Sections 120B, 419, 420, 409, 467, 468, 471 of IPC and Sections 13(1)(a) r/w 13(1)(d) & and 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (As Amended in 2018) in crime No.RC.No.032 2020 A 0006 on the file of the respondent police, seek bail.
conspiracy, impersonation, fabrication of false documents, submission of https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
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forged documents, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust,
fraudulent transaction, etc. thereby causing a wrongful loss of public money to an extent of Rs.45,40,65,000/- and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves by transferring / withdrawing the said amount to various accounts. All the accused persons have created fixed deposits in the name of M/s.Chennai Port Trust and fraudulently preclosed the fixed deposits and the amounts were deposited in the fake account of Chennai Port Trust General Insurance Fund which was created by the accused persons. From the said accounts, money was fraudulently transferred to several accounts and withdrawn as cash and collected by the accused persons. The first accused has approached the other accused persons for getting surplus funds from any Government Organisation for creating fixed deposits in any national bank with intention to swindle the said investments. In pursuant to the same, the first accused approached the third accused / Branch Manager of Indian Bank, Koyambedu Branch by furnishing broad resolution copies for the investment of Rs.300 crores.
2.1 It is the further case of the prosecution that the first accused who acted as kingpin of this crime got information about the deposits of surplus
funds of Chennai Port Trust through A26 who was the Assistant Superintendent, Bill Section, Finance Department of Chennai Port Trust. All
the accused persons conspired together and created bogus documents such as https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
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board resolutation, authorization letter in the name of Chennai Port Trust along with the forged employee ID card in respect of the fourth accused with the
individual pan card, aadhar card of the fourth accused and GST registration certificate of Chennai Port Trust as KYC for the purpose of opening the current account purportedly in the name of Chennai Port Trust General Insurance Fund by A4 by impersonating himself as Deputy Director, Finance Department of Chennai Port Trust. It was opened for the purpose of parking the investment amount received from Chennai Port Trust before creating fixed deposit and also to deposit the amount received from preclosure of fixed deposit receipts. From the said account, money was further fraudulently transferred to various accounts and withdrawn the amount in cash. Modus apprehendi of the accused persons are that they approached Chennai Port Trust officials for getting surplus funds of Chennai Port Trust in the form of fixed deposits and in that process in criminal conspiration with the bank officials, bank was made to quote higher rate of interest that the maximum permissible limit so as to ensure that the surplus fund was deposited in the Indian Bank, Koyambedu Branch as fixed deposit for a period of one year. Thus, the Indian Bank, Koyambedu Branch has obtained Rs.100,57,50,000/- from Chennai Port Trust through the account opened by the accused persons in the name of Chennai Port Trust.
2.2 Further, the Bank Manager who is arrayed as A3 has created
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Crl.OP.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
fixed deposits with the lesser interest rate than the quoted rate and handed over the fixed deposit receipts to the accused persons rather than delivering the same to the Chennai Port Trust directly. The accused persons created fake deposit receipts with the quoted interest rate and handed over the same to the Chennai Port Trust. The accused persons had possessed original fixed deposit receipts and the same were preclosed in conspiring with the bank officials and all the amounts were deposited in the fake current account. Thereafter it was transferred to various accounts to the first link beneficiaries known to the accused persons. The accused A2, A5, A6 had withdrawn Rs.15.25 crores as cash. Other amounts were transferred and withdrawn by the first link beneficiaries at various places by the other accused persons.
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Crl.OP.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
acted as commission agent. Whatever the amount received by them through their account which were duly repaid to A1. Therefore, they had no conspiracy with the first accused who cheated the Chennai Port Trust. They had no knowledge that the first accused opened the account in the third accused bank in the name of Chennai Port Trust and misappropriated huge sum. Whatever the amount transferred to their account, they were only on the basis of the commission and on deducting the commission, they returned back the entire amount in favour of the first accused. Therefore, they was no conspiracy by the petitioners along with the first accused. As far as A26 is concerned, he is only an employee of the Chennai Port Trust and he has nothing to do with the crime as alleged by the prosecution. Even according to the case of the prosecution, he furnished the details about the deposits of the first accused.
(i) A2, Manimozhi, who had conspired with other accused persons.
He had convinced the third accused to participate in the bidding of fixed https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
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Crl.OP.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
deposit from the Chennai Port Trust and also helped in opening fixed deposit in the name of other person. Thereafter, he colluded with other accused persons and opened a purported current account in the name of Chennai Port Trust General Insurance Fund by impersonating the Deputy Director (Finance) of Chennai Port Trust by the impersonator A4 which was used as platform for parking the fixed deposit funds of Rs.100,57,50,000/- on five instances as well as for fraudulent transfers to other beneficiaries and fraudulent bulk cash withdrawal from the counter by using the cheque issued in the name of purported Chennai Port Trust current account.
(ii) A8, who had conspired with other accused persons and collected six bank account details which were given to A7 in order to avail fraudulent credit of Chennai Port Trust fixed deposit fund and swindled the same for commission purpose. He availed credits by the first link beneficiaries from the purported current account of Chennai Port Trust through A7 and A8 to the tune of Rs.14,98,50,000/-. Based on the said amount, he availed commission for the fraudulent credits and subsequent withdrawals in cash.
(iii) A10, who conspired with other accused persons and canvassed
the beneficiaries i.e. other accused persons i.e. Proprietor of M/s.Taj Trading https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
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Crl.OP.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
Company and one Mr.John Roch Bosco and have collected 3 bank account details which were given to A8 in order to avail fraudulent credit of Chennai Port Trust fixed deposit fund and swindled the same for commission purpose. So far, he availed the credits by the first link beneficiaries from the purported current account of Chennai Port Trust to the tune of Rs.11,48,80,000/-. For the said amount, he availed commission for the fraudulent credits and subsequent withdrawal in cash.
(iv) A11, who also conspired with other accused persons and canvassed the beneficiaries and collected 9 bank account details and the same were furnished to the first accused in order to avail fraudulent credit of Chennai Port Trust fixed deposit fund and swindled the same for commission purpose. He availed the credits by the first link beneficiaries from the purported current account of Chennai Port Trust to the tune of Rs.6,19,05,000/- and availed commission for the fraudulent credits and subsequent withdrawals in cash.
(v) A21, who was running one water company in the name of
Lakshya Aqua since 2017. The other accused persons i.e. A19 and A20 used to https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
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come to his company. He conspired with other accused persons and created forged fixed deposit receipts and forged letter head which were used to preclose the fixed deposits as well as fraudulent transfer of funds from the purported current account of Chennai Port Trust to various accounts and subsequently the funds were swindled by the accused persons by way of transferring / withdrawal.
(vi) A26, who is an employee of Chennai Port Trust, Finance Department and he conspired with other accused persons and gathered information from the officials of the Finance Department of Chennai Port Trust as to the rate of interest in the last bidding rate and handed over to the other accused persons. He facilitated the others to drop the quotation by quoting a higher rate of interest than the last bidding rate for getting the fixed deposit from the Chennai Port Trust to Indian Bank, Koyambedu Branch and to hand over the three fake fixed deposit receipts. He had received illegal gratification of Rs.5,00,000/- cash from one, T.Easakki. He was treated as approver and also received a sum of Rs.1,20,000/- through his bank from other accused persons to favour and facilitate the accused persons for getting the funds of Chennai Port Trust by informing the highest quoted rate of interest.
offence as against the society and caused huge loss to the exchequer. All the https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
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accused persons have committed white collar crime and they conspired together and executed the crime in a well planned manner. Economic offences having deep rooted conspiracy involving huge loss to public funds needs to be viewed seriously. These offences are considered as grave offences affecting the economy of our country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to financial health of our country. The nature of accusation and severity of punishment in case of conviction, the reasonable apprehension of tampering with the witness or apprehension of threat to the complainant and prima facie satisfaction of the Court in support of charge as against the petitioners, this Court is not inclined to grant bail to the petitioners.
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another case alone will not be the basis for either grant or refusal of bail though it may have a bearing on principle. But ultimately the consideration will have to be on case-to-case basis on the facts involved therein and securing the presence of the accused to stand trial. Therefore, in determining whether to grant bail, both seriousness of the charge and the severity of punishment should be taken into consideration. The grant or refusal to grant bail lies within the descretion of the Court. The grant or denial is regulated, to a large extent, by the facts and circumstances of each particular case.
13.07.2022
lok
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Crl.OP.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
G.K.ILANTHIRAIYAN, J.
lok
Crl.O.P.Nos.12611, 11344, 11779, 5720, 10360 & 15111 of 2022
13.07.2022
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2 issues framed by the court
Whether bail should be granted to petitioners charged with serious economic offences causing huge loss to public funds involving conspiracy, forgery, and cheating.
Whether the seriousness of the charge and severity of punishment justify refusal of bail in economic offences affecting the country's financial health.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
Satender Kumar AntilReferred¶52
Satender Kumar Antil Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and Another
Misc.A.No.1849 of 2021 in SLP(Crl.)No.5191 of 2021Referred¶52
P.ChidambaramReferred¶52
P.Chidambaram Vs. Directorate of Enforcement
Sanjay ChandraReferred¶52
Sanjay Chandra Vs. CBI
G.K.ILANTHIRAIYAN and others
State of Tamil Nadu (represented by CBI)
G.K.ILANTHIRAIYAN
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
