Distinct cases of fraud involving different ATMs and cards must be tried separately; provisions for clubbing do not apply in such contexts.

J U D G M E N T

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Five among the accused in 23 crimes registered at different police stations have come up before this Court with a request to have the cases relating to all those crimes to be clubbed together as one case, thereby enabling the same to be tried together before one among the courts. 2. Petitioners are youngsters of the age group of

25-30. They are hailing from the State of Punjab. They have invented a peculiar modus operandi to cheat the State Bank of Travancore as well as the Federal Bank Limited. They used to fly from New Delhi to Nedumbassery, from where they used to hire a taxi and proceed to Thiruvananthapuram and other different locations, and to return to Nedumbassery. On the way, they used to step down at the ATM counters of the Federal Bank Limited and the State Bank of Travancore. By making use of different ATM cards procured from ICICI Bank, Axis Bank as well as HDFC Bank, they used to withdraw money from the ATM counters of the State Bank of Travancore and the Federal Bank Limited. For getting money, they used to insert the ATM cards and feed the PIN number. When money comes out for ₹10,000/-, they used to pick up ₹9,500/- out of it and leave the balance for ₹500/-. During the period of incident of these cases, in the ATMs of State Bank of Travancore as well as the Federal Bank Limited, the machine used to take back that currency left at the machine. As and when the money goes inside, the original transaction wherein an amount of ₹10,000/- was requested to be withdrawn would be reversed, thereby the account holder of that particular Bank would not lose any money from the account. At the same time, the persons withdrawing money from such ATMs could obtain the amounts taken by them out of the machine.

3. It is alleged that by applying the aforesaid modus operandi, they have cheated and defrauded the Federal Bank Limited as well as the State Bank of Travancore for crores of rupees. According to both the learned counsel for the petitioners, the amount allegedly defrauded would come only to a few lakhs of rupees and not crores, as alleged. 4. Heard Sri.Millu Dandapani and Sri.Rajit for the petitioners, Sri.Jawahar Jose for the State Bank of India, Sri.K.Madhusoodanan for the Federal Bank Limited, and Sri.Tom Jose Padinjarekkara, the learned Additional Director General of Prosecutions, for the State.

5. The learned Additional Director General of Prosecutions has produced a statement which shows the details of the crimes against the petitioners, as follows:-