O R D E R

The application is filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973(‘Code’, for short), by the first accused in Crime No.61/2024 of the Palakkad Town South Police Station, registered against the accused (two in number) for allegedly committing the offences punishable under Sections 406, 420 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 3,4,5 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978 (in short ' PCMCS Act) and Sections 3 and 21 of the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 ( 'BUDS Act' in short).

2. The essence of the prosecution case is that, the accused 1 and 2 without any sanction or permission collected money from the public for an online project named 'Meta Force'. They made the de facto complainant believe that they are the promoters of the said project. They conducted motivation classes at various hotels in Palakkad Town and induced the general public to deposit money in the said project. The accused 1 and 2 induced the de facto complainant to transfer an amount of Rs.28,77,500/- to the bank account of the first accused during the period from 1.8.2023 to 31.12.2023. However, the accused failed to give any profit or return the deposited amount to the de facto complainant. Thus, the accused have committed the above offences.

3. The petitioner had filed a similar application before the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge-III, Palakkad. However, the court below, by Annexure -4 order, dismissed the bail application.

4. Heard; Sri.Mohammed Youseff, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner and Smt.Seetha.S., the learned Public Prosecutor.

5. The learned Senior Counsel strenuously argued that the petitioner is totally innocent of the accusations levelled against him. He has been falsely implicated in the crime. The offences alleged against the petitioner will not be attracted to the facts of the case. Actually, the de facto complainant was one of the members of the business project named 'Meta Force'. The said project was dealing in virtual currency. Meta Force was born within the polygon ecosystem, combines gaming, social networking and virtual reality into a fast-growing metaverse where users create business communities and participate in NFT trading. The Force Coin dealt with by Meta Force is a crypto coin just like the Bit Coin and other crypto currencies. The petitioner has been maintaining friendship with the de facto complainant for the last ten years. The de facto complainant had misbehaved with a female member of the Meta Force team. When the petitioner complained about his misbehavior`, he developed a grudge towards him. It is an aftermath of the said incident that the de facto complainant has presently filed the frivolous complaint. Annexure 5 to Annexure 7 series establish that the de facto complainant was having a cordial relationship with the petitioner. The transactions conducted by the Meta Force do not fall within the purview of the BUDS Act or the PCMCS Act. The petitioner has been in judicial custody since 12.1.2024. The investigation in the case is practically complete and recovery has been effected. The petitioner's further detention is unnecessary. It is well settled that bail is rule and jail is the exception. The court below has ignored the guidelines laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Salinder Kumar Antil v. Commissioner of Police and another [2022 Livelaw (SC) 577], Aman Preet Singh v. C.B.I [2021 SCC Online (SC) 941] and Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar [(2014) 8 SCC 173] . Hence, the petitioner may be released on bail.

6. The learned Public Prosecutor vehementally opposed the application. She submitted that the petitioner is the mastermind of an online scam and the accused have cheated several innocent depositors. The petitioner is the promoter of 'Meta Force'. He conducted meetings at various hotels and solicited the public to invest money in the project. The investigation conducted so far has revealed that nearly 2500 d