KETAN KANTILAL SETH Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) With the consent of the parties, these transfer petitions have been taken up for final hearing. The present petitions have been filed by petitioner/accused for invoking the power under Sec. 406 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as 'CrPC'), seeking transfer of 16 criminal cases pending against him in four different States to one Court in Mumbai, where 3 cases are already pending. Following are the cases of which transfer are being sought -

(2.) In a nutshell, the prosecution story in majority of the cases revolves around one accused company namely M/s Home Trade Limited, which is alleged to have engaged in the business of Stock, Securities, Brokering and Trading. The allegations against the petitioner herein and one Sanjay Hariram Agarwal are that they were the authorized signatories of the accused company and while acting in the capacity of Directors of the said accused company, they entered into several transactions dealing with government securities and further sold the said securities without any authorization. Further, it has also been alleged that the government securities were not delivered within time and the money raised thereby has been misappropriated by the accused persons including the petitioner herein.

(3.) During the pendency of the instant petitions, application for intervention (bearing I.A. No. 134476 of 2021) has also been filed on behalf of one applicant namely; Omprakash Bhaurao Kamdi, seeking permission to intervene on the grounds of being a 'necessary' and 'proper' party as stated in the application.