Personal inconvenience or threats may not be sufficient grounds for transferring cases, and evidence of ongoing threats is crucial in such decisions.

ORDER :

All these Transfer Criminal Petitions, under Section 407 CrPC, are filed seeking to withdraw C.C.Nos.34 of 2017, 88 of 2016, 36 of 2015, 69 of 2016, 33 of 2017 and 37 of 2015 respectively on the file of the Court of Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Addanki, Prakasam District, and transfer the same to any other competent court of Judicial First Class Magistrate at Guntur.

2. Since the petitioner is all these petitions is one and the same, all these petitions are heard together and are being disposed of by this common order.

3. Heard Ms. T.V.Sri Devi, learned counsel for the petitioner/accused and Sri M.R.S.Srinivas, learned counsel for the 1st respondent/complainant.

4. The facts, in brief, leading to filing of all these transfer criminal petitions, are as follows:

(a) 1st respondent in all these petitions filed private complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, in C.C.Nos.34 of 2017, 88 of 2016, 36 of 2015, 69 of 2016, 33 of 2017 and 37 of 2015 on the file of the Court of Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Addanki, Prakasam District.

(b) It is the case of the petitioner that she never issued any cheques and that one Kalumuri Padma was running several unregistered chits worth of Rs.1 lakh, 2 lakhs, 5 lakhs and 10 lakhs. As the petitioner got acquaintance with the said Kalumuri Padma since 15 years, she approached the petitioner and requested to get subscribers for joining her chits and as per her request, the petitioner got joined several persons as chit members. The petitioner used to collect the monthly instalments from the chit members and pay the same to Kalumuri Padma from time to time. Some of the chit members committed default to a tune of Rs.13,88,700/-. The said Kalumuri Padma started threatening the petitioner to pay the amounts for the default committed by the chit members and obtained her signatures on five blank pronotes and five blank cheques by force. Unbearable with the torture, the petitioner paid Rs.10,00,000/- to Kalumuri Padma on 27.04.2014 at Chirala, towards full and final settlement of chit amount and she agreed for the same. When the petitioner requested her to return the blank pronotes and cheques, she postponed the same on one pretext or the other. Thereupon, the petitioner made a representation to the Superintendent of Police, Ongole, District Collector, Ongole, S.H.O., Addanki Police Station, Tahasildar, Addanki, to take necessary action against the said Kaulumuri Padma for doing unregistered chit business. Having come to know of the same, Kalumuri Padma, with the help of her henchmen got filed these cases, after exchange of notices, through (i) Kalumuri Padma, (ii) Kalumuri Uma Guru Kumar, (iii) Anantha Naga Murali Krishna, (iv) Chandra Guru Murthy, (v) Sanam Gangadhar who are no other than her relatives.

(c) The petitioner has been attending the Court in those cases. The complainants in these cases and their henchmen are demanding to settle the amounts threatening the petitioner with dire consequences if she failed to pay the amount. The husband of the petitioner is working in the Police Department at Guntur and her children have left Ongole for studies. The petitioner is staying alone at Addanki to attend the Court proceedings.

(d) While the things stood thus, on 30.03.2022, while the petitioner was standing in court premises after attending the case in C.C.No.33 of 2017, the complainants and their henchmen threatened the petitioner with dire consequences. In this regard, she complained to the police in Crime No.124 of 2022 for the offences under Sections 506, 509 IPC read with Section 34 IPC. The petitioner has immense threat to her life in case she attends the Court proceedings at Addanki. Hence, all these petitions are filed.

5. The main ground for seeking transfer of the cases is the alleged threat and attack by the henchmen of Kalumuri Padma when the petitioner attends before the court. To support the ground taken for transfer of the cases, the p