Chennai: The Madras high court has dismissed an anticipatory bail petition from an accused, who apprehended arrest in connection with a cheating case to the tune of Rs 10 crore.
Justice N.Anand Venkatesh dismissed the anticipatory bail petition filed by M. Prakash, who apprehended arrest at the hands of Vepery police for the alleged offences under section 420 IPC.
The case of the prosecution was that this petitioner in the guise of constructing a hospital had collected a sum of Rs 5.75 crore from the defacto complainant Dr. Sathyamoorthy. However, the petitioner failed to keep up the promise and also refused to return back the amount.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the entire allegation in the complaint proceeds as if the amount was paid to the petitioner by the defacto complainant in cash and none of the amount that have been claimed to have been paid to the petitioner was shown in the books of accounts.
Advocate N.A. Mohamed Noohu, appearing for intervener (Dr. Sathyamoorthy) submitted that this petitioner had given three cheques totaling a sum of Rs 5.75 crore. When the cheque was deposited, the same was dishonoured. If really the petitioner had not received the amount from the doctor, there was no occasion for this petitioner to give cheques to the defacto complainant for a sum of Rs 5.75 crore, he added.
Advocates Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam assisted by V.S. Senthil Kumar and A. Kripakaran, appearing for another intervener (Dr. S.G.D. Gangadaran)
submitted that the accused in order to attain huge sum lured the doctor to obtain loans from multiple banks and financial institutions for his personal gain and diverted the said funds to his personal account and to the other accounts for the reasons best known to him and the accused has in total received a sum of Rs 4.25 crore from the doctor in multiple forms such as cash, jewellery and as loan from various banks and financial institutions, they added.
Additional public prosecutor M. Prabavathi submitted that apart from the present complaint, there was one more complaint that has been given by another doctor named Gangadharan from whom this petitioner with a similar promise had collected a sum of Rs 4.25 crore. This petitioner has been adopting this
pattern for a long time. There were victims who have been cheated by this petitioner. Therefore, this petitioner has to be subjected to custodial interrogation in order to unearth the entire truth, she added.
The judge said, going by the gravity of the offence committed by this petitioner and also of the fact that there was a moral turpitude on the part of the petitioner in committing the crime, this court was not inclined to grant anticipatory bail to this petitioner and custodial interrogation of this petitioner becomes very essential for the police to find out from whom all the petitioner has collected money by following this pattern. In the result, this criminal original petition was dismissed, the judge added.
