HC orders CBI probe in Bathinda fraud, says cops helped accused

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into a 2013 case of cheating against two directors of a firm and fined them with Rs 5 lakh each while indicting the state police of “helping” the accused.

The bench of Justice Manoj Bajaj said, “The police officials’ conduct clearly indicates that they have failed to carry out the investigation in a lawful manner. Such improper investigation erodes the public confidence in the rule of law. This court feels that there are grounds for transferring investigation to the CBI which should complete the probe in two months.”

An FIR was registered in October 2014 with allegations of cheating, criminal conspiracy and others on the complaint of Sharan Dass, owner of Gurdas Agro Private Ltd, who had a bank account with UCO Bank’s Amrik Singh Road branch in Bathinda. He had accused Arjun Bhanot and Rakesh Bhanot of Arjun Mal Retail Holding Private Ltd of cheating him of Rs 2 crore in connivance with the bank officials.

The allegations were that the bank sanctioned Rs 6.5 crore loan to the two accused without proper documents. When it came to light, the bank officials approached the complainant to lend them Rs 2 crore. When he refused, his blank cheques with the bank as security were used and Rs 2 crore secured from HDFC Bank was transferred to the account numbers of the two accused in December 2013.

The court was dealing with the bail plea of the two accused.

“This indicates that the petitioners had support of senior police officers who instead of carrying investigation in a lawful manner chose to adopt an extra-judicial procedure to prove innocence of the accused,” the bench observed referring to an affidavit filed in 2020 by the director general of police (DGP) wherein it found material facts missing.

The bench observed that the complainant was contesting frivolous petitions for the last seven years, while the accused successfully delayed the investigation with the help of police officials. The bench also took note of the fact that challan was presented against bank officials but the police did not deal diligently with the two accused.

The court ordered that the accused should deposit Rs 5 lakh each with director of PGIMER, Chandigarh, for poor patients within two months.