Money-grabbers should be dealt with an iron hand. Otherwise, the affected persons will be put to great hardship, suffer irreparable loss and subjected to mental agony and torture, the Madras High Court has said.
Justice K.N. Basha made the observation while dismissing anticipatory bail petitions of three directors of Paazee, a Tirupur-based company. The police had registered a case for an alleged offence punishable under Sections 3 and 4 of The Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act and Section 420 of IPC (cheating). The petitions were filed by K. Mohanraj, K. Kathiravan and A. Kamalavalli.
Mr. Justice Basha observed: “This is a very unfortunate case wherein thousands of middle income group people have been lured and induced to part with their hard-earned money under the guise of returning the same with lucrative interest, and ultimately cheated by petitioners.”
They have been cheated to the tune of several crores of rupees.
The investigating agency was not able to fix the exact amount as complaints poured in every day. Despite grant of anticipatory bail earlier by the High Court (which was subsequently cancelled on grounds of non-compliance with conditions imposed), the petitioners had not settled the amounts to the depositors. During the course of hearing of applications for cancellation of advance bail, the petitioners had voluntarily undertaken to deposit Rs.1 crore every week and they had filed affidavit. Even that undertaking was not complied with.
Mr. Justice Basha said he was of the considered view that the petitioners were not entitled to anticipatory bail.
