SC restores case against Mehul Choksi-wife in ₹ 30 crore business fraud

Mehul Choksi, a fugitive businessman, and his wife have suffered a setback as the Supreme Court has restored a cheating case filed by the Gujarat Police, overturning a 2017 state high court order that had quashed the FIR against them.

Mehul Choksi is also accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, wherein he and his nephew Nirav Modi are accused of defrauding the bank of over ₹ 14,000 crore.

As per the Gujarat FIR filed in 2015 by the complainant Digvijaysinh Himmatsinh Jadeja, Mehul Choksi and his wife are charged with forgery and deceit in relation to a business deal involving ₹ 30 crore worth of 24 carat pure gold bars.

In its decision on November 29, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti invalidated an order from the high court dated May 5, 2017, and instructed the police to continue their investigation.

“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,” the bench said.

It stated that in carrying out the investigation, the investigating officer will consider the decisions made by the highest court and several lower courts regarding the interpretation of Indian Penal Code sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 464 (forgery), and 465 (punishment for forgery).

“We are of the opinion that the said examination and evaluation should not have been done by the high court,” the bench said.

The high court declared that the matter was a civil dispute and that they could not be held criminally liable, and quashed the FIR. It had instructed the civil court to expeditiously resolve the case in front of it within a year. Outraged by the directive, Jadeja appealed it to the highest court.

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