New Delhi, Aug 21 The Delhi High Court has disposed of petitions seeking a probe by the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into the alleged multi-crore Westland Trade Pvt. Ltd. franchise scam.
In its judgment, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna noted that there were no exceptional circumstances or inter-state ramifications in the matter warranting an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
It observed that although the accused company was involved in a large-scale scam, the cases arose from independent franchisee agreements with individual complainants, and clubbing them together could delay investigations into individual complaints.
Justice Krishna noted that several FIRs had already been registered in Uttar Pradesh, charge sheets filed in many cases, and that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Noida was already handling the matter.
A status report filed on behalf of the Noida Police Commissioner stated that the Investigating Officer had written to senior officials seeking a probe by the CBI, ED, and SFIO, but although “higher officials have taken the issue further at the government for the requisite permission action, no action has been taken to date”.
The Delhi High Court said that since the petitioners were dissatisfied with the investigation into their complaints, they could approach the Allahabad High Court or the jurisdictional High Court, as no complaint or part of the cause of action was shown to have arisen in the national capital.
“The company was registered in Gurugram, Haryana and the agreements were all signed and stamped in Noida, U.P., and the FIRs had also been registered (there),” it pointed out.
The petitioners argued that only the CBI could effectively probe the “gigantic scam”, since the real conspirators were powerful politicians and the fraudsters had created numerous shell companies across the country, with victims spread nationwide.
It was alleged that the Registrar of Companies and bank staff were also complicit in the racket, which involved bribery, corruption, violations of central laws, multi-state organised crime, and other serious economic offences.
Further, it was argued that invoking provisions of the IPC was not appropriate, as the case clearly involved money laundering, benami transactions, and black money, warranting investigation by the CBI, ED, and SFIO.
In its judgment, Justice Krishna said the SFIO can act only on directions from a court or tribunal, but the case did not warrant such a direction, further noting that the ED has already initiated an investigation and is collecting material to determine whether any offence under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) has been committed.
The Delhi High Court concluded that “respective agencies have already taken requisite action as mandated".
"In the circumstances, no further directions are merited by this Court; all three writ petitions, along with pending applications, are disposed of,” it ordered.
The petitioners had earlier moved the Supreme Court demanding a comprehensive probe, but the plea was dismissed as withdrawn in February 2021, with liberty to approach the jurisdictional High Court.
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