The Kerala High Court has granted bail to a 43-year-old man accused of luring and inducing people to deposit money in an attractive gold scheme which has allegedly caused loss to the tune of Rs 52 lakh. The accused persons under the banner of their business “Gold Palace Gold & Diamonds” had issued an attractive scheme luring people to deposit a certain amount in their company and after a fixed period, investors can purchase gold jewellery without making charges and at the lowest rate of gold.
A single-judge bench of Justice Shircy V. has noted in its order that chargesheet has already been filed in the matter and other co-accused have been granted bail. The Court has granted the main accused bail with the following conditions;
(i) The petitioner shall be released on bail on his executing a bond for a sum of Rs 5,00,000 (Rupees 5 lakh only) with two solvent sureties for the like sum each to the satisfaction of the court having jurisdiction.
(ii) The petitioner shall not directly or indirectly, make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court.
(iii) The petitioner shall co-operate with the trial of the case.
(iv) The petitioner shall not commit any offence while on bail.
Before the High Court, the counsel for the petitioner had submitted that the petitioner owned a jewellery shop at Kuttiadi and the other accused have joined as partners and they were running the business smoothly. But owing to Covid-19, the business was in loss and has caused major economic shock. Because of the crisis, he could not return the interest or money as promised by him. He had no intention to cheat the de facto complainant. But unfortunately this case has been registered against him.
Brief facts of the case
The petitioner along with the other accused were running a firm by name “Gold Palace Gold & Diamonds” at Kuttiadi. The present petitioner was the managing partner of the firm. They have made an advertisement with attractive offers that if certain amount is deposited in their firm, after a fixed period, the customers could purchase gold ornaments from the jewellery without making charges, for the lowest rate of gold, if the value of the gold at the time of deposit of money was less than the prevailing rate. Attracted by this advertisement, so many persons have deposited money.
The de facto complainant in this case had deposited a sum of Rs 20,00,000 and 1212 gms of gold on 28.11.2017 and joined this gold purchase scheme. So in this crime as per the prosecution records in total a sum of Rs 52,25,000 was received by this firm from various customers during the period from 28.11.2017 to 02.09.2021. But when the customers approached the firm for gold, neither the gold was handed over as promised nor their money. Thus, they have cheated the customers, who deposited money believing their offer, in the gold purchase scheme. Thereby, he was booked for the offences punishable under Sections 406 and 420 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code.