D. VINOD KUMAR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been filed under Sec. 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by the petitioners, who are accused 1 to 6 in Crime No.635/2022 of Bedakam Police Station, Kasaragod district, seeking anticipatory bail.

(2.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Public Prosecutor. Perused case diary as such and the report placed by the learned Public Prosecutor.

(3.) The prosecution case as that can be extracted from the case diary placed by the learned Public Prosecutor is that, as per the informaton at the instance of Market Intelligence Team of Reserve Bank of India regarding unauthorised deposit collection by GBG Nidhi at Kundamkuzhi within the jurisdiction of Bedakam Police Station in Kasaragod district, a preliminary enquiry was conducted and the same revealed that GBG Nidhi Ltd. (CIN U65999KL2020PLN065721), a company registered under the Companies Act on 12/11/2020, Headquarters at Kandamkuzhi in Kasaragod district, where the 1st petitioner, Vinod Kumar D is the Managing Director and Chairman of the Company and Subhash Chiravangat, Chengala Mohammad Razak, Periya Gangadharan Nair, Prejith, Joshi George and Rajish Maniyat as Directors had given an offer to the effect that "Your Money Will be Double in Forty Weeks Guaranteed". The Company also promised to give a person who deposits Rs.1.00 lakh, Rs.1,000.00 at their wallet daily and also would give Rs.1,80,000.00 within 10 months. Accordingly, various persons, attracted by the offer, accepted the offer and deposited huge amount of money. The Investigation team found that GBG Nidhi Limited Company maintained 8 accounts and there were transactions to the tune of Rs.49,75,82,408.00 in the said accounts. But the balance outstanding at the time of freezing of the accounts is Rs.11,16,52,807.00 and the remaining amounts were misappropriated by the accused after cheating and defrauding the depositors. Since the company was not approved by Securities and Exchange Board of India ('SEBI' for short) or Reserve Bank of India ('RBI' for short), the collection of huge amount of money by the accused under the company name GBG Nidhi Limited is against the sanction of law. Accordingly, the 18 cases were registered alleging commission of offences punishable under Sec. 420 of IPC as well as under Sec. 3 r/w 21(1) and (2) and 5 r/w 23 of the Buds Act, 2029. Crime No.635/2022 is one among the crimes out of 18.