S K KRISHNAMOORTHY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Criminal Original petitions are filed by the third accused in C.C. Nos. 10103 to 10112 of 2005 to quash the same. All these criminal original petitions are found to be connected with each other inasmuch as all these cases have arisen out of similar transactions which took place within a short span of time and the accused are one and the same.

(2.) The charge as against the petitioner is that he being a merchant, hatched a conspiracy to create fake and fabricated international credit cards along with other accused to cheat the bank and prepared bills as though he had transacted business on the fake charge slips and bogus invoices and thereby caused heavy loss to the bank. The petitioner, along with other accused, was charge sheeted for offences punishable under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 read with 463 and 109 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) The petitioner contends that except the statement of the bank official examined as witness No. 1 by the investigating official, no other material has been collected to show prima facie that the petitioner fabricated the documents in culmination of the conspiracy hatched by him and duped the bank along with other accused. The petitioner, who transacted business in mobile phones, has been unnecessarily dragged to the portals of the criminal court. The petitioner would not have accepted the credit cards and prepared the charge slips and made claim to the bank if the bank's swipe machine did not accept the credit card of the customer. The petitioner had parted with the mobile phones immediately after the bank's swipe machine accepted the credit card submitted by the other accused. At any rate, there is no material to accept the suspicion entertained by the bank official to show even distantly that the petitioner has committed any crime.