JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: For Bail in Crime No.RCO692018E0008 of 2018 on the file of the respondent.)

The Court made the following order :-

The petitioners, who were arrested on 19.01.2021 for the offence punishable under Sections 120-B r/w 406 and 420 IPC and Section 5 of TNPID Act, 1997, in Crime No.RCO692018E0008 of 2018 on the file of the respondent police, seek bail.

2. The petitioners before this Court are accused nos. 3 & 4. The first accused is one M/s Parivar Dairies and Allied Limited Company and the other accused are holding various positions in the first accused Company and some of them are involved in managing the affairs of the Company. The prosecution case is that the petitioners and other accused entered into criminal conspiracy during the year 2002 at Gwalior and other places for the purpose of getting wrongful gain for themselves by cheating innocent public by way of collecting deposits/investments from them dishonestly and fraudulently, without obtaining any approval or registration from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and with false promise to pay high returns on such deposits/investments and collected deposits/investments from 17379 depositors to the tune of Rs.49,76,53,691/- (Rupees Forty Nine Crore Seventy Six Lakh Fifty Three Thousand Six hundred and Ninety One only). Instead of returning the deposited amount on maturity, the petitioners along with other accused said to have misappropriated the said amount for their personal gain.

3. The defacto complainant in this case is one of the investors in the scheme introduced by the first accused company. He has invested a sum of Rs.1,07,000/- in his name, his wife's name and sister's name. His repeated request for payment of money on maturity did not yield any result and when he went to the company, he found that the company premises was closed. Hence, the complaint.

4. Learned Assistant Solicitor General of India appearing for the respondent, on instructions, submitted that the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association of M/s Parivar Dairies and Allied Limited have no provisions for soliciting deposit from the general public. However, the accused floated various fraudulent schemes such as Installment Payment Plan (IPP), Recurring Deposit (RD) and Down Payment Plan (DPP), collected huge sum of money from the general public and cheated them. She further submitted that the investigation conducted so far revealed that 17379 depositors have been cheated and the accused have caused wrongful loss to the tune of Rs.49,76,53,691/-. This is the second application filed by the petitioners for bail and the first application filed by them in Crl.OP(MD)Nos.4619 and 4620 of 2021 was dismissed by this Court on 21.04.2021.

5. Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners are innocents and have not committed any offence as alleged by the prosecution. He further submitted that the investigation is completed and charge sheet has also been filed, wherein, the petitioners are said to have misappropriated to the tune of Rs.9 Crore (Approx). The petitioners are having assets and bank balance and they are prepared to settle the deposits by utilizing the same, for which purpose, they prayed this Court to appoint a Committee headed by a Retired Judge of this Court. The petitioners have also filed undertaking affidavits in this regard.

6. Learned Counsel appearing for the intervenors acceded to the suggestion of the petitioners for appointment of a Committee headed by a retired Judge of this Court to disburse the amount to the depositors. But, they disputed the number of depositors i.e., 17379 and the wrongful loss caused by the accused (to the tune of Rs. 49,76,53,691/-), as claimed by the respondent-CBI in the charge sheet. There are several depositors who are not aware of the present proceedings and the investigating agency is yet to get them.

7. In fact, the intervenor in Crl.MP(MD)No.5780 of 2021 has filed a