1. This Special Case is pertaining to the offences relating to transactions in securities, which popularly came to be known as 'Securities Scam of the Year - 1992' and which has rocked the economy of the country. Accused No.4-Harshad S. Mehta, since deceased, (for short, “Accused No.4-HSM”), is said to be the kingpin of the said scam, who 4/236 has, according to the prosecution case, in connivance with the Officers of National Housing Bank, State Bank of India and various other Banks and Financial Institutions, illegally siphoned-off crores of funds of the Banks and Financial Institutions for speculative returns by systemic and deliberate abuse of the system.

2. Accused No.1-Ravikumar and Accused No.2-Suresh Babu in this case, at the relevant time of incident, were Assistant General Manager and Assistant Manager, respectively, of the National Housing Bank, (for short, “NHB”), established under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987, (for short, “the NHB Act”). Accused No.1-Ravikumar was in-charge of the Fund Management Group, (for short, “FMG”), which was established to deal with the transactions of the securities for deployment of the funds of the NHB.

3. Accused No.3-Sitaraman was the Officer of the State Bank of India, (for short, “SBI”), who, at the relevant time, was handling these securities transactions with various other Banks and Brokers.

4. Accused No.4-HSM, since deceased and hence case being abated against him on 23rd April 2002, was the kingpin and the main culprit for the entire security scam that broke out in the wake of the early months of 1992.

5. Accused No.5-Atul and Accused No.6-Pankaj were the Assistant Vice Presidents of M/s. Harish Private Limited and M/s. Growmore Research and Asset Management Limited, which were the Partnership Firms of Accused No.4-HSM.

6. Accused No.7-Sudhir is the brother of Accused No.4-HSM and, like Accused No.8-Hiten, Accused No.9-Deepak and Accused No.10-Virendra, he was also dealing in the business of Broker.

7. The gravamen of the charge levelled against all these Accused is of entering into criminal conspiracy with an object to commit criminal breach of trust by misappropriating the funds of NHB with an intention to obtain valuables, securities and pecuniary advantage to Accused No.4-HSM without any public interest.

8. As per prosecution case, Accused No.1-Ravikumar and Accused No.2-Suresh Babu, being the Officers of NHB and having dominion over the funds of NHB, and Accused No.3-Sitaraman, being in-charge of the securities transactions at SBI, have committed this criminal breach of trust by misappropriating the funds of NHB, by transferring the said funds to the accounts of Accused No.4-HSM by showing fake transactions of purchase of securities from SBI, by preparing forged documents to substantiate the said transactions with the aid and abatement of Accused No.5-Atul and Accused No.6-Pankaj, who were working with Accused No.4-HSM, and in abatement with the Brokers, namely, Accused No.7-Sudhir, Accused No.8-Hiten, Accused No.9-Deepak and Accused No.10-Virendra, who were dealing with the securities.

9. It is also the prosecution case that Accused No.1-Ravikumar and Accused No.2-Suresh Babu have also committed the offence of cheating other Financial Institutions by entering into the transactions of purchase and sale of securities by issuing the Bank Receipts, (for short, “BRs”), without those receipts being backed by the securities, which were not in existence at all, and inducing these Financial Institutions to part with large amounts in favour of NHB and also by preparing forged and fabricated documents to substantiate these transactions of sale and purchase.

10. Accused No.1-Ravikumar, Accused No.2-Suresh Babu and Accused No.3-Sitaraman are further charged and tried for the offences punishable under Sections 409 r/w. 120B of IPC and Sections 13(1)(c) and 13(1)(d) r/w. S