Kochi, June 26 The Kerala High Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to producers of the hit Malayalam film "Manjummel Boys" in an alleged cheating case regarding the agreement in sharing the proceeds of the film.
Hearing the plea of the producers on Thursday, the High Court pointed out that a coordinate bench of the High Court had earlier refused a plea for quashing the criminal proceedings after the investigation officer in the case filed an objection stating that out of the amount invested by the complainant, a portion was diverted to the personal account of the accused.
The High Court then pointed out that the relationship between the parties is governed primarily by business transactions and that the dispute falls in the commercial sphere.
"Since a learned Single Judge of this Court has already refused to quash the proceedings, it cannot be held that this is a purely commercial dispute. An element of criminality can be said to be existent. However, the question before this Court is whether the same warrants custodial interrogation," it said.
It then held that this is a case where custodial interrogation is not necessary and further pointed out that "since the distribution of profits and the mode of investment carried out by the parties are the source of this dispute, I am of the view that majority of those matters that could be governed by documentary evidence…"
Therefore the High Court was of the opinion that limited custody of the petitioners can be granted in the case to complete the investigation and asked the petitioners to appear before the Investigating Officer on July 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and if need be, on 8th July as well and granted them anticipatory bail.
The charge against the producers was that they cheated the complainant and made him invest Rs 7 crore on a promise that he would be paid 40 per cent of the profits of the film, which did not happen despite the film turning a huge hit. In the High Court while the producers argued that this was a purely commercial dispute, the public prosecutor submitted that as per the investigation conducted so far, the petitioners have prima facie committed the offences alleged besides pointing out that the producers are attempting to cover up the offences committed under the guise of a civil dispute to delay payments.
Those who got the interim relief included Shawn Anthony, Soubin Shahir and Shahir’s father.
The complainant is Siraj Valiyathara Hameed.
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