Supreme Court revives cheating case against fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, his wife

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, December 6

Reversing a 2017 verdict of the Gujarat High Court, the Supreme Court has revived a case of cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust against fugitive Mehul Choksi registered at Gandhinagar Police Station.

By an order dated May 5, 2017, the Gujarat High Court had noted “that the case on hand is predominantly a civil wrong and the necessary ingredients to constitute a criminal offence are lacking.”

However, noting that the high court undertook a detailed factual examination and evaluation, a Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna on November 29 set aside the high court’s order, saying, “We are of the opinion that the said examination and evaluation should not have been done by the High Court.”

Mehul Choksi, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, is also an accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case in which they allegedly defrauded the bank of over Rs 14,000 crore.

Complainant Digvijaysinh Himmatsinh Jadeja, accused Choksi and his wife of committing offences of forgery and cheating in connection with a business transaction involving 24 karat pure gold bars worth Rs 30 crore.

Now, the top court has asked the Gujarat Police to go ahead with the probe.

“The observations in this order will not be read as comments or observations on the merits of the case. Investigation will continue without being influenced by any of the findings or observations made in the impugned judgement or in the present order,” it said.

The Bench asked the investigating officer to keep in mind rulings of the top court and various high courts interpreting sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 464 (forgery) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of the Indian Penal Code.