The central legal point established in the judgment is that the offence of cheating requires dishonest intention from the inception, and criminal proceedings should not be used as a shortcut for other remedies available in law.

PRAKASH D. NAIK, J.

1. Heard both parties for final disposal of the of the application.

2. The applicants are arrayed as accused in the complaint filed by the respondent in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class, at Aurangabad, which is numbered as Regular Criminal Case No. 1551 of 2014. The applicants have invoked the inherent powers of this Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to challenge the criminal proceedings arising out of the said complaint.

3. Brief facts, as alleged in the complaint, are as follows:

(a) The complainant is Private Limited Company registered under the provisions Companies Act. The complainant company is also known as NAC Group being a group of four companies. These companies are in the business of manufacturing Auto Components and supplies the products to Large Scale Automobile Industries, as well as health related services through The Apollo Clinic.

(b) The accused No. 1 is a subsidiary of Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. The accused No. 1 is engaged in rendering software services and consulting to various companies. The accused No. 2 is the Chairman and Managing Director of Accused No. 1. The accused No. 3 is the Chief Executive Officer of the accused No. 1 Company. Accused No. 4 is Head of business activities. The accused No. 5 is the project consultant and accused No. 6 was Assistant Manager of the accused-Company. The accused No. 2 to 6 are looking after the affairs of conducting the business of accused No. 1 Company. Therefore, they are responsible for liabilities, if any, incurred on behalf of accused No. 1 - Company.

(c) In the year 2006, the complainant-company decided to have upgradation in the modes of operations and functioning of the company. The whole intent behind it was to have easy control over the managing operations, transactions and reporting amongst the group of companies. For this, it was essential to connect the database of all group companies by implementing common software such as SAP. Therefore, the complainant was in need of a professional software services company to design and implement the SAP system as per the requirement and function of the complainant's company.

(d) Coincidentally, A Marketing Officer of the Accused-Company had visited MIDC area, Waluj, Aurangabad, for business purpose. He learnt that the complainant was interested to upgrade its office administration by implementing SAP system. Hence, he approached the complainant and represented about the competency and capabilities of the accused No. 1 - Company in rendering services for implementation of SAP system.

(e) A meeting was organized at the office of accused No. 2 as Mumbai, for discussion about implementation and working of the said project. The accused Nos. 2 to 5 persuaded the complainant to place order with the accused Company to purchase and implementation of ERP, SAP B1 at complainant Company. It was also represented that the accused is a SAP Certified Partner and that they have all in house facility to develop system as per the requirement of the complainant and that they have expertise in SAP implementation methodology. It was also represented that such services were to facilitate rapid work successfully and they would implement SAP B1 as per the requirement of the complainant. The accused No. 2 to 5 gave a rosy picture about credentials of the Company.

(f) Considering the potential ability represented by the accused, the complainant placed work order dated 4th December, 2007. On 30th July, 2008, the accused No. 6 visited the Complainant Company and submitted their work plan for implementation of the said project. It was agreed that the accused to receive rupees one lakhs on the date of the purchase order from the complainant and balance of Rs. 21 lakhs will be parted with during the course of the implementation of the project. The accused assured the complainant that the final system test of implementation as well as the working of the system will be completed by the en