A curious case of 500 shares resolved after 30 years

A curious case of 500 shares resolved after 30 years

The Aggarwal family – comprising a share broker and his chartered accountant brother and doctor sister, along with senior citizen mother – were charged for misappropriation of shares purchased by brothers Pradip and Dilip Kapani

Dharmesh ThakkarUpdated: Thursday, April 28, 2022, 09:44 AM IST
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Mumbai: Justice delayed is justice denied, the apex court has observed umpteen times. But it has taken 31 long years for an Andheri family to be discharged by a magistrate court after being implicated in an FIR in 1991.

The Aggarwal family – comprising a share broker and his chartered accountant brother and doctor sister, along with senior citizen mother – were charged for misappropriation of shares purchased by brothers Pradip and Dilip Kapani.

The share broker promised to transfer 500 shares to the Kapanis but gave only 50 and allegedly divided the rest among his family members.

The 500 shares, valued at Rs 88,350 in 1991, are now worth Rs 3,56,500. Besides over three decades, it has taken Rs 20 lakh in legal expenses for the trial. The case was settled in 2016 and the dispute resolved out of court, but it continued until last week when the magistrate court discharged the accused. In the interim, the Kapanis filed a criminal complaint.

After the FIR was filed in 1991 at DN Nagar police station, the share broker deposited 450 shares of Bharat Forged Limited and 100 shares of GR Magnates Limited with the police station.

The 450 shares deposited with the police were not transferred to Kapani brothers as the company had completely stopped communication with the accused in compliance with the restraining order passed by the magistrate court in 1992.

The case continued to linger for nine years till 2000, when the magistrate granted permission to compound the offence by signing consent terms. Duly signed consents for transfer of the 450 shares have been lying with the DN Nagar police station since 1991, along with Indemnity Bond and the MoU for return of the shares to the complainant.

Advocate for the Aggarwal family, Aditya Pratap said, “If Pradip Kumar Kapani had any dispute regarding the alleged non-transfer of shares, then the appropriate remedy was to go before the National Company Law Tribunal. However Kapani deliberately chose to bypass these remedies because it would have exposed the fact that he had slept over his rights for 15 years. In 2015, when the value of the said 450 shares of Bharat Forge zoomed to over Rs 20 lakh, Kapani suddenly woke up. Knowing that civil courts would not entertain his belated claim which was barred by limitation, a mischievous criminal case was filed.”

In 2015, a fresh case was registered at Amboli police station by Dilip Kapani for criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal intimidation for a case in which the Metropolitian Court Magistrate AI Shaikh observed that the Agrawal family was being prosecuted on the same grounds for which they had been acquitted in the year 2000 when the consent terms were signed.

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