H.S. Bedi JUDGMENT
Dalveer Bhandari, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. The Central Bureau of Investigation is seriously aggrieved by the judgment of the High Court of judicature at Madras dated 30.4.2008 by which the High Court has quashed the entire criminal proceedings and CC Nos. 80, 81 and 82 of 2001 against the respondents herein namely, A. Ravishankar Prasad and A. Manohar Prasad.
3. According to the appellant, the respondents herein have committed serious offences, such as forgery, fabrication of documents and using the said documents as genuine. The respondents, A. Ravishankar Prasad and A. Manohar Prasad also entered into conspiracy with the Chairman and Managing Director and other officials of the Indian Bank, Chennai with the object of cheating the Indian Bank in the matter of recommending/sanctioning/disbursing huge credit facilities in the form of:
(1) Letter of Credit (LC);
(2) Open Cash Credit (OCC)
(3) Secured- Temporary Overdrafts (SOD/TOO)
(4) Bank Guarantee (BG)
(5) Blocked Loan; and
(6) Taking over of liabilities from other banks and other branches of Indian Bank without proper appraisal, without following banking norms, beyond the delegated powers and without ensuring the end use of the funds in the name of M/s Ravishankar Films Pvt.Ltd., M/s Gemini Arts Pvt.Ltd., M/s Gemini Pictures Circuit Pvt.Ltd. and M/s Prasad Properties and Investments Pvt.Ltd. represented by respondent No. 1 A. Ravishankar Prasad and respondent No. 2 A. Manohar Prasad who fraudulently produced false documents through their employees and used the same as genuine and defrauded the Indian Bank huge amounts running into hundreds of crores and obtained pecuniary advantage for themselves and others.
4. On completion of investigation charge-sheets were filed and four cases were registered against M. Gopalakrishnan, formerly CMD, Indian Bank, Chennai and other public servants, bank officials and A. Ravishankar Prasad and A. Manohar Prasad and their group concerns under Section 120B read with Section 420 and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
5. On 28.3.2007 the respondents herein have settled the entire outstanding dues by paying an amount of Rs. 157 crores during March 2007 and the petitions before the Debt Recovery Tribunal, Chennai have been dismissed as settled out of court.
6. Respondent Nos. 1 and 2 had preferred application under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. before the High Court of Madras, to quash the proceedings against them contending inter alia that the witnesses so far examined by the prosecution have not stated anything against the respondents. It is also urged that the respondents had entered into a compromise