COMMON ORDER :

Since these Criminal Petitions arise out of the same crime number, they are being taken up for disposal together by way of this common order.

2. Petitioner in Criminal Petition No.3193 of

2023 is A.1, and the petitioner in Criminal Petition No.3194 of 2023 is A.2, in crime No.11 of 2023 of C.I.D. p.s., A.P., Mangalagiri registered for the offences punishable under Sections 420, 409, 120B, 477A read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, ‘IPC’) and 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act, 1999 (for short, ‘the Act, 1999’) and 76 and 79 of the Chit Funds Act, 1982 (for short, ‘the Act, 1982). They filed the respective Criminal Petitions seeking regular bail.

3. Basing on a report dated 29.04.2023 lodged by the Assistant Registrar of Chits, office of the District Registrar, Kakinada, the subject crime was registered against the petitioners herein and others. The allegations in the report, in brief, are as follows.

M/s. Jagajjanani Chit Fund Private Limited (for short, ‘JCFPL’) is a company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 doing chit funds business acting as Foreman, represented by petitioners herein and another as Directors. Petitioner/A.1 is the Branch Manager and authorized to act on behalf of the company as Foreman. A host of offences and violations of provisions of the Act, 1982 were observed during inspection undertaken on 15.11.2022 at the Branch Office of the company. Under Memo No.CF/1889014, dated 27.04.2023, the Commissioner and Inspector General of Registration and Stamps, Andhra Pradesh, Vijayawada, communicated the findings pertaining to the search conducted in the office of JCFPL on 21.03.2023 by the officials and it was instructed to take necessary action in the light of the findings of the above said search, and bank statements pertaining to the company were provided. On a perusal of various documents regularly filed by the company for opening of new chit groups and operation of chit groups by the Foreman and also bank statements of the branch and bank statements pertaining to the company, it was found that a criminal activity was undertaken by the company by creating an ingenious vicious cycle perpetrating fraud, cheating, criminal breach of trust at the cost of gullible chit subscribers, which include non-payment of subscription amount into the chit account which the company is supposed to pay on par with the subscribers in each chit; false declaration of facts in the minutes of auction proceedings submitted to the informant; conducting finance business with the subscription amounts.

On verification of 49 payments of prize monies to the prized bidders, which are originally shown as bank transfers in the respective vouchers filed with the informant along with the minutes, only 21 are actually paid through banking and the remaining 28 payments were paid in cash which clearly shows the wrong declaration of facts submitted. Further, on verification of 11 payments of prize money, the actual payments done through bank are much less than the amount shown as paid in the cash voucher filed with the informant along with minutes, amounting to Rs.76.64 lakhs, which clearly shows that the company has been creating false accounts pertaining to payments to subscribers and has been doing clandestine financial transactions with subscribers amounts. The amount of difference amount from the minutes book and the bank statement clearly shows about the default on the part of the company.

Further, the company is not being run at the place business shown in Memorandum of Association/Articles of Association and the said change of address has not been filed with the informant. The company was sanctioned permission to run chit business with its office/branch at Rajahmundry, but as seen from the records, it is observed that it is running another branch office at Munsiff Junction, Jagannadhapuram, Kakinada unauthorizedly and deceiving the subscriber