Delhi High Court pulls up cops for failure to register FIR

New Delhi: The Delhi high court has pulled up the police for not lodging a case of cheating against a real estate firm for cheating several persons by inducing them to invest in its project to build a mall in North Delhi.

The company had falsely promised investors to give the ownership of the shops opened in the mall. The court has now order-ed the police to register an FIR in the case.

Justice Vipin Sanghi said the reluctance shown by the Delhi police in lodging a case despite disclosure of commission of serious offences, including criminal breach of trust and forgery, and its opposition to such an order in the lower courts and the high court “shakes the confidence” and raises doubts “as to whether the police is truly interested in performing its statutory obligations”.

The judge also said that non-registration of an FIR has led to “serious miscarriage of justice” to the petitioners, represented by senior lawyer Ravi Gupta and advocate Dhan-esh Relan.

The court said that the possibility of the accused (Today Homes and Infras-tructure Pvt Ltd, its CMD V.K. Ghambir and Direc-tor Arun Nayyar), who are builders, having deep pockets, influencing the machinery cannot be ruled out.  

It said though it was inclined to transfer the probe to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it was refraining to do so “in the hope that Delhi police would make all endeavours to redeem themsel-ves and restore the shaken confidence of the court”.

The court also imposed cost of Rs 10,000 each on the firm, and its two officials and directed them to pay the amount within two weeks from August 23.

The date of the order also said that if the petitioners, the complainants who claimed to have been cheated, were not satisfied then they can move a plea for transferring the probe to another independent agency like the CBI.

The court also quashed the magisterial and sess-ions courts orders rejecting the complainants petitions for registration of an FIR in the matter.