SREEJA GOPAKUMAR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Applications for regular bail under Section 439 of Cr.P.C.

(2.) The applicants are both ladies. They are accused 2 and 3 in different crimes mostly pertaining to Ollur Police Station. The offences alleged are mainly are punishable under Sections 406 and 420 read with Section 34 of the I.P.C. One of the crimes, ie., Crime No.1772/2020 pertaining to B.A.No.7215/2020 has been transferred to Pudukad Police Station. In most of the cases, applicants are accused 2 and 4; in B.A.No.7361/2020 they are accused 1 and 8; in B.A.No.7362/2020 they are accused 3 and 6; and in B.A.No.7363/2020 they are accused 5 and 6.

(3.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that the applicants had in furtherance of the common intention with the remaining accused, pledged spurious gold ornaments in different places, which includes financial institutions and also with individuals and dishonestly induced them to deliver money, and thereafter, by the time the persons who received the gold ornaments realised that the same was spurious, the applicant and the co-accused appropriated the money. The first instance occurred when the applicants responded to an advertisement made by the defacto complainant in Crime No.1732/2020, offering to purchase old gold ornaments. The applicants had allegedly approached them and offered them to take the gold ornaments, which they had pledged in some financial institution. They convinced the defacto complainant therein, and the gold allegedly pledged by them was taken after making the payment. Later they realised that it was spurious gold. They made complaints and in consequence of that, the applicants were apprehended. The accused were first arrested on 15.09.2020. Subsequent investigation revealed that they were involved in so many other cases. Consequently, the others accused were also arrested. The modus operandi of the applicants is that they engage persons like Tojan, Jinu, Ullas and Athul to approach the financial institutions and pledge the spurious gold ornaments. The gold ornaments were allegedly obtained from one Makkar, who is yet to be identified and arrested. The gold ornaments had a thick gold plating, which could not be detected by the usual scanning machines available with the financial institutions. And that is how they succeeded in duping persons as well as financial institutions.