SWAPNIL BHATT Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Sec. 482 of Cr.P.C. has been filed invoking extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court, seeking quashment of FIR No. 498/2013 dtd. 28/10/2013 registered at P.S. Cyber and Hi-Tech Crime, Bhopal u/s 420 of IPC, 66A, 66D of I.T. Act which culminated into charge sheet no. 143 dtd. 27/1/2014 u/s 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 474, 120B and 34 of IPC, u/s 43-B, 65, 66-A, 66-D, 71, 74 and 85 of Information Technology Act, 2000, u/s 20-C, 21-A, 21-C, 21-G, 21-H of Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1952, u/s 23-S of Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and subsequently (Sec. have been mentioned according to the charge sheet), based on Notification issued by the State of Madhya Pradesh transferring the investigation to CBI, the crime was reregistered vide FIR No. RC0682014E0002-CBI/EOW-Mum/EO-III/ND dtd. 19/3/2014 at P.S. CBI, EOW, Mumbai which later transferred to CBI/EO-III, New Delhi and ultimately culminated into a supplementary charge sheet no. 22/2020 dtd. 30/12/2020 u/s 420 and 120B of IPC, Sec. 66-D of IT Act, 2000.

(2.) Brief facts necessary for the disposal of this petition are that petitioner No. 6 Amit Soni along with his real brother Anurag Soni and complainant Lokesh Sharma had established a company named A.U. Commodities Pvt. Ltd. in 2010 which later changed to M/s Moneyhouse Commodities (here-in-after referred to as the 'Company '). This company was authorized for future trading by Multi Commodity Exchange (in short MCX). On 22/7/2011, complainant Hemant Soni was appointed director of the said company. Initially, in 2010-11, complainant Kamlesh Dave was an authorized signatory of the said company. He was authorized to deal with all sorts of financial and administrative operations of the company under his signature. From 2011 onward, the entire work of the said company was being managed by complainant Hemant Soni. Due to some personal difficulties, petitioner Amit Soni resigned from the directorship of the said company in February 2013 and in the same year 2013, petitioner No. 4 Vinay Mahajan was appointed as Director. At the time of filing of the charge sheet, Anurag Soni and Vinay Mahajan were Directors of the Company. Anurag Soni was the sleeping director and was not looking after the day-to-day affairs of the company. At one point of time, complainants Navin Raghuvanshi, Hemant Soni and Lokesh Sharma were also Directors of the Company. Accused Amjad Belim, Vijay Semre, Swapnil Bhatt, Rajesh Rupawat, and Amit @ Gopal Neema were working in different offices of the company either as workers or managers. Accused Kunal Chaumar @ George and Rakesh Batra were providing technical support to the Company.

(3.) On 17/10/2013, complainants Vishal Garg, Lokesh Sharma, Navin Raghuvanshi, Samit Bule (since dead), Rajesh Soni, Kamlesh Dave, Hemant Soni, and Chandra Prakash Rathore filed a written complaint at P.S. Cyber and Hi-Tech Crime, Bhopal, M.P. on the basis of which Crime No. 498/2013 u/s 420 of IPC, Ss. 66A and 66D of Information Technology Act, 2000, was registered on 28/10/2013 against the petitioners and others. Finding irregularities in the investigation, ADG (Cyber) recommended the transfer of the same to the Crime Investigation Department (for short CID), pursuant thereto; the investigation was handed over to the CID on 4/11/2013. Thereafter, vide Notification No. F-12-91/2013 B-1/(Two) dtd. 2/12/2013, the Home Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh requested the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, Government of India to transfer the investigation of this FIR to the Central Bureau of Investigation (hereinafter referred to as 'CBI '). Vide Notification No. 228/84/2013- AVD-II dtd. 10/3/2014 Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, Government of India handed over the investigation of this FIR No. 498/2013 to CBI. But, after the request was made by the State Govt. to the Central Govt. but before the order of transfer of the FIR could be passed, the CID filed charge-sheet no. 143 dated 27/28/1/2014 u/s 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 474, 120B and 34 of IPC, u/s 43(b), 65, 66A, 66D, 71, 74 and 85 of Information Technology Act, 2000, u/s 20(c), 21(a), 21(c), 21(g), 21(h) of Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1952, u/s 23 of Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 against applicant Nos. 1 to 3 and applicant Nos. 5 and 6 before the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal. The CBI investigated the crime and after about 7 years filed a supplementary charge sheet no. 22/2020 dtd. 30/12/2020 u/s 420, 120B of IPC and Sec. 66-D of IT Act, 2000 against applicant No. 4 as well as u/s 420 and 120B of IPC against applicant No. 7 i.e. the Company, which is pending trial for framing of charges.