R. BALASUBRAMANIAN, J.

These two petitions are at the instance of the accused in Crime No. 1431 of 1998 on the file of the first respondent police station. In the first petition, there are three respondents namely the Inspector of Police, Crime Branch (R-1); State of Gujarat by Sub-Inspector of Police, Detective Crime Branch, Ahmedabad (R-2) and lastly the Superintendent of Central Prison, Chennai (R-3). In the second petition, there are six respondents. Besides the respondents in the first case, who are arrayed as Respondents 1, 2 and 6 respectively in this case, there are three other respondents namely State of Karnataka by Inspector of Police, Bangalore (R-3); State of Andhra Pradesh by Inspector of Police, Crime Branch, Hyderabad (R-4) and State of Maharashtra by Inspector of Police, Crime Branch (R-5). The relief asked for in both the petitions is, identical and it is as follows:

"This Court may be pleased to direct the (third respondent in the first case and the sixth respondent in the second case) not to hand over custody of the petitioner on the basis of any P.T. warrants/arrest warrants etc. etc."

2. The persons, who are trying to take custody of the petitioner f