JONNA VENKATA TIRUPATI RAO Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Apprehending the arrest in connection with FIR being I. CR. No. 9 of 2022 registered with Economic Offices Wing, CID Crime, Gandhinagar for the offences punishable under Ss. 409, 406, 420, 467 468, 477(A) of the IPC, the applicant herein is seeking pre- arrest bail under Sec. 438 of the Cr.P.C.

(2.) Facts and circumstances giving rise to file present application are that, the complainant Shashikant Patel, being a Director of Sadbhav Engineering Ltd, lodged an FIR against in all 7 persons. The applicant Mr. Jonna Venkata Rao, has been impleaded as accused no.1 in the FIR. He is the Director of Gayi Adi Management Trends Pvt. Ltd., which is in the business of investment and finance. According to case of the complainant, he met the applicant herein and other persons through finance broker and requested for loan of Rs.6.00 crore. The company Gayi Adi Management extended a loan of Rs.6.00 crore to the borrower company / Shailesh Patel, against which, as per the arrangement/ understanding which was also reduced into writing, the borrower had to transfer / securities 3183300 shares of M/s. Sadbhav Engineering Ltd., as a collateral against the loan amount, which transaction called 'loan against share'. Accordingly, the amount was transferred by the accused company and reciprocally the shares were transferred in the multiple tranches. As per the understanding the complainant borrower opened demate account with accused company i.e. GSV Securities Pvt. Ltd., and has also provided signed DIS Slips to the lender company as a collateral as a loan against advance and further agreed to pay borrowed amount and interest thereof. It is alleged in the FIR that, at relevant time, value of the shares was about 24 crores and without knowledge of the complainant borrower, the shares sold off in the open market and fetched priace was Rs.16,44,33,083.00. It is further alleged that, the borrower company had never signed the DIP slips and after selling of the shares, the false mails were sent to the borrower company informing that, their shares are still lying in the demate account. In such circumstances, it is alleged that, the applicant accused and others have hatched the conspiracy for their economic benefits and fraudulently, by forging the signatures on the DIP slips, committed an offence of cheating, criminal breach of trust and forgery.

(3.) In the aforesaid facts, learned counsel Mr. Mukesh Rana with Mr. Kunal A. Shah and Randhir Kumar submitted that the questioned FIR arising out of third subsequent new complaints filed in the year 2022 regarding the same transaction and is gross abuse of process of law and maliciously, a fresh complaint for the same transaction concealing the closure of previous complaint, having been filed with a view to humiliating the applicant by arresting him. It is submitted that, the applicant being a Director, never met, communicated or iterated with the complainant regarding the said transaction in any manner / capacity whatsoever personal or otherwise and the applicant is based out of Hyderabad and has never visited Gujarat regarding said transaction. The applicant is a Director of the Companies and has to supervise around more than 600 employees working under him. Thus, the alleged transaction as referred in the FIR is purely a contractual and civil in nature and relationship with the accused the accused company and complainant is borrower and lender. The agreement / term sheet were admittedly exchanged between the parties over e-mail. Thus, therefore the applicant is unnecessarily being roped in as an accused. The Apex Court time and again held in its various judgment that, merely because the accused are Chairman, Director of the Company, without any specific role attributed and the role played by them in their capacity, they cannot be arraigned as an accused, more particularly, they cannot be held vicariously liable for the offence committed.