The court upheld that allegations in the FIR indicated a prima facie case of cognizable offences, necessitating thorough investigation into the fraudulent investment scheme.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Shri G.S. Chaturvedi, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Mohd. Haider, learned counsel for the petitioner alongwith Shri Akshay, Advocate and Shri Shashi Dhar Pandey, learned A.G.A. for the State.

2. The present writ petition is preferred inter alia with following reliefs :

(a) Call for records and issue order, direction or writ in the nature of certiorari or any other similar writ, thereby quashing the impugned FIR dated 24.11.2024 registered as Case Crime No. 463 of 2024 under Sections 318(4), 61(2) and 316(2) BNS 2023 registered at P.S. Sector 58, Noida District Commissionerate.

(b) Issue any other writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble Court may deems fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.

(c) Award the cost of the writ petition to the petitioner.

Facts of the Case:

3. A First Information Report was lodged on 24.11.2024 in P.S. Noida Sector-58, District Gautam Buddh Nagar under Section 318(4), 61(2), 316(2) BNS 2023. As per the FIR, against the petitioner-M/s. Vuenow Infotech Pvt. Ltd. and other related companies and individuals, the Enforcement Directorate conducted a search and seizure on 17.10.2024 at various places including the premises of petitioner as well as related companies, which are M/s. Vuenow Marketing Services Pvt. Ltd. (in short 'M/s. VMSL'), M/s. Zebyte Infotech Pvt. Ltd. (in short 'M/s. ZIPL') and M/s. Zebyte Rental Planet Pvt. Ltd. (in short 'M/s. ZRPPL') and persons associated with the said entities. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that M/s. VMSL under its MyCloudParticle brand, was offering various customers an investment opportunity by which the investors were induced to invest by buying Data Centre Asset or Cloud Particle servers through Sale and Lease Back model, whereby, a customer buys a cloud particle, which is a storage space in cloud and the same would be leased back for a term of 10 years to M/s. ZRPPL and M/s. ZIPL, which are marketing affiliates of M/s. VMSL, and in response the customers/buyers were offered minimum guaranteed rent for ten years. Each Cloud Particle comprises of 1 TB of cloud storage space.

4. The FIR further discloses that the business model of these companies was that M/s. VIPL used to purchase Servers (Data Storage Facility) and IT equipments, M/s. VMSL, who thereafter sell it to different individuals/investors and M/s. ZIPL and M/s. ZRPPL were the marketing companies for lease back policy, however, M/s. ZIPL and M/s. ZRPPL receives money from M/s. VIPL and not from its end customers and the same is being paid to the investors/individuals in the form of rent. During the search it was found that as on 18.10.2024 the total storage capacity for cloud with the petitioners was only 553 TB and out of which only 1.9 TB was being used and the balance 551.1 TB remained unused. In the premises there were 1119 servers, which were not connected to any power source, which means they were not in working condition. It was also found that M/s. ZRPPL had earned Input Tax Credit (ITC) by purchasing goods and services from bogus suppliers. The total invoice value of such purchase transactions is Rs. 66,23,58,209/-.

5. In the FIR it is mentioned that during the Course of investigation, the statement of members of M/s. VIPL were recorded, wherein, it is stated that total live data storage capacity is 2701 TB across various data centres. The total quantum data facility provided by ZRPPL to its clients is substantially low in comparison with the quantum of cloud particle leased by M/s. ZRPPL to individuals/investors. The Statement of Nitin Srivastav, Director of M/s. VIPL reveals that individual investors were being paid from the investments received from new investors. As per the balance sheet of M/s. VMSL, the total revenue received by the Company was Rs. 5,33,38,06,158/- and M/s. VMSL has received the total amount of Rs. 2236.07 crores as credit. Perusal of different tables goes to show that M/s. VMSL has sold cloud particles to individuals/inv