1. The petitioners are the accused Nos.2 and 4 to 8 in C.C.No.7280 of 2006 on the file of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai. Altogether, there are 9 accused. The 1st accused, namely, S.R. Velanandan is not before this Court and this Court is informed that he is absconding. The 3rd accused B.S. Kantharaj Chetty and the 9th accused V.Thangavel are also not before this Court. The 2nd petitioner (the 4th accused) Mr. K.N.Kannan Chettiar died on 12.6.2007. The remaining petitioners 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are the accused Nos.2 and 5 to 8 in the said case. Seeking to quash the said case as against them, these petitioners are before this Court with this petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C.

2.The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows:

A company known as 'Associated Business Credits Limited' was incorporated as per the provisions of the Indian Companies Act on 18.10.1982. The Directors of the said company on the day of its incorporation were Mr.Velanandan (1st accused) who was the Managing Director, Mr.Premkumar (the 5th accused), one Dwarakanathan and Mr.Ravindran (the 8th accused). Between 1982 to 1988, the company was doing business well. During that period,