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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
RANJIT MORE, BHARATI H. DANGRE, JJ.
PRAMOD BHAICHAND RAISONI AND OTHERS - Appellant
Versus
STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ANOTHER - Respondent
Writ Petition No. 2784 of 2018
Decided on : 02-05-2019
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – Sections 407, 177, 178, 188, 197, 531, 239, 223 – Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors Act – Section 3 – Penal Code, 1860 – Sections 420, 468, 471, 120B read with Section 34 – Issuance of appropriate direction to transfer – Petitioners who are the office bearers/ employees of a Credit Society titled as "Bhaichand Hirachand Raisoni Multi State Credit Society" have invoked the writ jurisdiction of this Court praying for issuance of appropriate direction to transfer the entire proceedings pertaining to 77 CRs registered under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and The Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors Act in which they are arraigned as accused to a Single MPID Court at Jalgaon. – Held, Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act is a special enactment to ameliorate the interest of the depositors and the said Act is enacted to deal with such financial establishments in the State who are grabbing money received as deposits from public mostly middle class and poor strata of the society, on the promise of unprecedented high attractive interest on maturity and such financial establishments have defaulted and it has cost great public resentment and uproar creating law and order problem in the State. – The said legislation intends to cure the malady of thousands and thousands of depositors ramped into a public disorder and the fraudulent default of the accused in such type of offences form a unique class of white collared and organized crime. – The transactions of the accused persons who are the petitioners before us have exploited several depositors and the promise on which the deposits were accepted was never fulfilled. – The procedure contemplated under the Special enactment intends to prevent and protect the precarious loss of the depositors and enable them to recover the amount as early as possible. – No solution is available to the innocent unsecured depositors in absence of the procedure prescribed in the enactment. – It is also the duty of the State to assist the innocent depositors and to protect their interest and effectively take steps to recover the amount and return the same to the persons who have lost their savings. – State being the custodian of the welfare of the subjects cannot be a silent spectator and once a legislation has been brought in, to deal with this malady and protect the interest of the vulnerable sector, it is the duty of the State to render justice to such depositors and this would be in real sense amounting to securing of socio economic justice to its citizens, which is a solemn duty of every State. – Court deem it expedient to exercise our powers conferred on us by virtue of Section 407 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to transfer the 77 criminal cases against the Bhaichand Hirachand Raisoni Multi-State Credit Co-operative Society and its office bearers/employees pending in the different Special MPID Courts in the State to be transferred to the Special MPID Court at Jalgaon. – On such transfer, the Special Court (MPID Jalgaon District) would preferably conduct the trial on day to day basis. – Order Accordingly
BHARATI H. DANGRE, J.
1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard by consent of the parties.
The petitioners who are the office bearers/ employees of a Credit Society titled as "Bhaichand Hirachand Raisoni Multi State Credit Society" have invoked the writ jurisdiction of this Court praying for issuance of appropriate direction to transfer the entire proceedings pertaining to 77 CRs registered under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and The Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors Act (for short 'MPID') in which they are arraigned as accused to a Single MPID Court at Jalgaon.
2. All the petitioners are arraigned as accused in various FIRs which are registered in different police stations alleging therein that the Multi State Credit Society has accepted deposits from individuals but has failed to return the said deposits with the promised returns. The FIRs lodged in various police stations allege that the office bearers of the Multi-State Credit Society known as Bhaichand Hirachand Raisoni has accepted the amount from various investors and 77 such FIRs came to be registered in various police stations in the State, including Pune, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Vardha, Amravati, etc. On such FIR being instituted, Sections 420, 468, 471, 120B read with Section 34 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments; Act, 1999 came to be invoked and applied against the present petitioners who were holding the post of Director/office bearers of the said Credit Co-operative Society. The case of the petitioners is that the FIRs came to be registered due to sudden panic and provocation, frivolously raised by one of the complainants and the petitioners submit that the MultiState Credit Society was founded as a Credit Society in the year 1996 and there are 263 branches of the Credit Society in the State of Maharashtra and also in the State of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan with deposits of Rs.1100 Crores. On the multiple FIRs being lodged in various districts of Maharashtra and on completion of investigation, charge-sheets came to be filed in those CRs. On such offences being registered, the petitioners were arrested and the claim of the petitioners is that they are senior citizens and have stepped in the decrepitude of old age. The petitioners had earlier approached this Hon'ble Court by filing a Writ Petition for transfer of investigation of all complaints and FIRs to a single Investigating Agency. This Writ Petition was allowed on 27th October 2015 and the investigation was transferred to a Special Investigating Team (CID) and pursuant to the investigation, charge-sheets were filed.
The limited relief which the petitioners seek through the present writ petition is to allow a Single Special Court of MPID either in Jalgaon or Pune where they can be tried. The emphasis on Jalgaon as the place of trial is made on account of the fact that the main branch of Bhaichand Hirachand Raisoni Multi State Credit Society is situated in Jalgaon district. It is also alleged by the petitioner that even if any FIRs are filed at future point of time, they can also be tried by the Special Single Court of MPID who is entrusted with the trial of 77 CRs.
3. Mr.Ponda, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners submits that the petitioners are incarcerated since 2015 and the trial in the CRs in which they have been chargesheeted has not commenced. He is apprehensive that if the trial continues in different Courts of MPID, it would consume considerable time and it would be difficult to ascertain as to when all these trials would be concluded. The petitioners, according to Shri Ponda, being in their advance age, are suffering from various ailments and producing them on different dates for trial before different Courts would be a cumbersome process apart from the other disadvantage that on occasions, on account of their absence, the trial in different Courts would get postponed. On the
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