JUDGMENT

Mukta Gupta, J. (Oral)--By this petition, the petitioner seeks anticipatory bail in case FIR No. 600/2016 under Sections 420/406/120B IPC registered at PS Vikas Puri, Delhi on the complaint of Kuldeep Singh.

2. Allegations in the above noted FIR on the complaint of Kuldeep Singh are that he registered himself with Franchise India Pvt. Ltd. (in short `FIPL') to find out a business/investment opportunity where he was introduced to alleged M/s. Sera Cue Labs Pvt. Ltd. (in short `Sera Cue') and its pathology lab business who had given an advertisement in "The Franchise World Magazine-June 2015 Edition" prepared by Franchise India on behalf of Sera Cue. The complainant was promised by Sera Cue to set up a complete pathology lab with fully automatic, non-touch technology machines worth Rs.1.25 to Rs.1.50 crores with 10-12 qualified employees wherein all the lab management, administration, operations, expenses and advertisement was to be taken care by Sera Cue through its Directors/officials. In return the complainant was asked to make one time investment of Rs.45-55 lakhs. On the aforesaid promise, complainant entered into a Franchisee Agreement with Sera Cue on 15th October, 2015 at Vikas Puri and made a payment of Rs.40 lakhs between 15th October, 2015 to 1st December, 2015 vide various cheques. He further invested Rs.10-12 lakhs in lab infrastructure and took the lab premises on rent for a monthly rent of Rs.45,000/-. Complainant's lab was inaugurated on 17th January, 2016 at S-371, Ground Floor, Uppal Southend, Sector-49, Sohna Road, Gurugram after the premises was duly approved by the company Director/officials of Sera Cue. However, in the laboratory only two staff members were posted and with very basic equipments worth Rs.2-3 lakhs approximately which were taken on rent from one M/s Kuber Inc. The accused persons also did not pay for the staff salary, electricity and telephone bills, amount due to the vendors and also stopped paying the monthly amount due towards the complainant after May, 2016. Sera Cue also did not deposit its taxes and TDS deducted from its staff and franchisee payments with the Income tax department. While the present complaint was pending, two more complainants Surender Singh and Ashish Garg also filed the complaints. Thus they were also joined as victims in the above noted FIR.

3. Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner contends that though the name of the petitioner has been mentioned, however, on a bare perusal of the FIR there is no allegation that he either induced or promised and was not even the person responsible for carrying out the Franchisee Agreement. The petitioner was introduced as an Additional Director by virtue of his investment in the company Sera Cue for which a Memorandum of Understanding dated 16th March, 2015 was entered into between Ms. Ritu Sahi, Arvinder Singh and Ms. Gurpreet Kaur who were the Directors of the company Sera Cue Pvt. Ltd. The MOU dated 16th March, 2015 notices that the petitioner was investing a sum of Rs.40 lakhs as unsecured loan and the Directors would transfer shares in the name of the petitioner. He further states that due to the illegal activities of the erstwhile Directors of Sera Cue, the petitioner was also constrained to file a complaint to the SHO, PS Sector-53, Gurugram, Haryana and sought registration of FIR against them. He further states that when the petitioner was made a Director on 31st December, 2015 he was not even present at the Board Meeting and his role, if any, in the company Sera Cue was limited to strategic guidance towards growth of the company. The petitioner is not a signatory to the Franchisee Agreement with the complainant and that the petitioner was not even the signatory of the bank account of the company maintained with State Bank of Patiala at Chandigarh and was only a joint signatory of companies bank account with ICICI Bank at Gurugram along with two other Directors and that account could be operated by the signa