JUDGMENT - N.K. PAREKH, J.:---The petitioner in this matter is the original accused No. 1 in Case No. 227/W of 1978 on the file of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, 37th Court, Esplanade, Bombay, being aggrieved by an order dated 24th November, 1980, the petitioner has filed the present application for quashing the proceedings in Case No. 227/W of 1978.

2. The facts that lead to this application are that one R.C. Mehta filed a complaint in the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's 37th Court at Esplanade, Bombay which came to be numbered as Case No. 227/W of 1978. There were four accused in this case, one being Shashi Nair, who was accused No. 1 (the petitioner herein), one Tatoba Shewale, who was accused No. 2; one Prabhakar Rawtoo, who was accused No. 3; and one Raymond M. Ruben, who was accused No. 4 (accused Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are the respondents No. 2 to 4 in this petition). (For brevity sake, the said R.C. Mehta is hereinafter referred to as the complainant whereas the said Shashi Nair is hereinafter referred to as the accused).

3. In this complaint, it was the case of the complainant that he was and is the Export Manager of M/s. C. Ramon Co. Pvt. Ltd. That the said company was concerned with exports of marine products. That the accused were dealing in sea-foods and trading in the name and style of Variety Food Exports. That in or about February 1977, the accused approached the said M/s. C. Ramon Co. Pvt. Ltd., and represented to them that their firm enjoyed a high reputation and was willing to supply frozen shrimps. That they would execute all orders from time to time and carry out the processing and storing of the goods in the cold storage as also effect deliveries. The accused also agreed to get the goods processed, packed and stored in cold storage and export them in fulfilment of the contract arrived at between C. Ramon Co. Pvt. Ltd., and their foreign buyers. That relying on these representations M/s. C. Ramon Co. Pvt. Ltd., placed an initial order of 500 cases of H.B. frozen shrimps on the terms and conditions incorporated in a letter dated 23rd February, 1977 which the accused accepted. That the firm of M/s. C. Ramon Co. Pvt. Ltd., had also agreed to advance to the accused 75% of the F.O.B. value of the goods, on the accused giving a specific undertaking that the amounts of advance would be applied by them only to acquire raw materials, grade the product and incur various expenses incidental to processing them. That it was also agreed that the goods acquired were also to be deemed to be hypothecated to M/s. C. Ramon Co. Pvt. Ltd. It was also agreed that the accused also undertook to submit correct vouchers, statements, etc., in respect of the goods after properly processing, packing and storing them in the cold storage. That in pursuance of this agreement, the accused submitted invoices from time to time. That they in fact, submitted about 23 invoices giving the details of the goods, their grade numbers, slabs and the weight of the goods stored by them in cold storage. That relying on these details furnished to the company, the company advanced a sum of Rs. 4,77,966.96.

4. It is the case of the complainant that by reason of these 23 invoices, accused gave the company to understand that they had in fact packed and stored 13854 kgs. of H.B. frozen shrimps. However, at a later stage they found that although the accused had represented that they had stored 13854 kgs., they had in fact stored only 9200 kgs. It is the case of the complainant that on discovering this fact, they entered into correspondence. That they were finally constrained to file the said complaint, inter alia, charging the accused with having committed offences under section 120-B read with section 420 and section 406 of the Indian Penal Code and section 420 and section 406 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

5. This complaint was verified on or about 13th October, 1978. On verification, the learned Magistrate pro

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