‘Manjummel Boys’: Kerala High Court stays proceedings in cheating case against producers of hit film

A poster of Manjummel Boys

The Kerala High Court on May 17 stayed for a month the proceedings in a cheating and forgery case pending before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-VIII, Ernakulam, against actor-cum-producer Soubin Shahir, producer Shawn Antony and Soubin’s father Babu Shahir in connection with a dispute over the production of the hit Malayalam film Manjummel Boys.

The stay order came on a petition filed by Babu Shahir seeking to quash the criminal case against him and other partners of his production company which produced the film. The case was registered by the Maradu police based on a complaint lodged by Siraj Valiyathara Hameed who claimed to have invested money in the production of the film. He alleged in the complaint that the petitioner and others had refused to pay him the profits as per the terms of the investment agreement he had executed with the company.

When the petition seeking to quash the case filed by Babu Shahir came up for hearing, P. Vijayabhanu, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the dispute was of civil nature. The complaint had been filed before the police to pressure the petitioners to settle the civil dispute. The Supreme Court had on many occasions deprecated the practice of attempting to settle civil dispute through criminal proceedings. Besides, the complainant had already initiated the arbitration proceedings.

The case was registered against them under Sections 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).