W.P.(CRL) 562/2023

Page 1 of 28

$~

*

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

Reserved On: 05^th October, 2023

Pronounced On: 24^th November, 2023

+

W.P.(CRL) 562/2023 & CRL.M.A. 5126/2023 (Stay)

RAJINDER SINGH CHADHA

..... Petitioner

Through:

Mr. Sandeep Sethi, Senior Advocate

with Mr. Giriraj Subramanium, Mr.

Akhilesh Talluri, Mr. Joy Banerjee,

Mr. Ravi Pathak, Mr. Simarpal Singh

Sawhney, Ms. Urvashi Singh and Mr.

Siddhant Juyal, Advocates.

versus

UNION OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS THROUGH

ITS CHIEF SECRETARY & ANR.

..... Respondents

Through:

Mr. Amit Tiwari, Senior Panel Counsel

for R-1/Union of India.

Mr. Zoheb Hossain, Special Counsel

for R-2/Directorate of Enforcement

with Mr. Vivek Gurnani and Mr. Kartik

Sabharwal, Advocates.

CORAM:

HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE AMIT SHARMA

JUDGMENT

AMIT SHARMA, J.

1.

The present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read

with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (‗CrPC‘) seeks

primarily the following prayer:

―i. Pass a writ/order/direction in the nature of certiorari thereby

issuing direction to quash and set aside all proceedings and actions

Digitally Signed

By:RANJU BHALLA

Signing Date:24.11.2023

17:51:31

Signature Not Verified

W.P.(CRL) 562/2023

Page 2 of 28

taken pursuant to the Enforcement Case Information Report bearing

number ECIR/09/HIU/2019 dated 27.06.2019.‖

Background

2.

Briefly stated, the facts of the case, relevant for adjudication of the

present petition are as under:

i.

Two FIRs, i.e., FIR No. 16/2018 dated 24.01.2018 and FIR No.

49/2021

dated

12.03.2021

were

registered

under

Sections

420/406/120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (‗IPC‘) at PS Economic

Offences Wing (‗EOW‘). The said FIRs were registered against the

persons accused therein, including the petitioner and arose out of a

similar set of facts and circumstances.

ii.

In both the FIRs, the respective complainants, inter-alia, alleged that

despite payment of monies in 2006-07, they did not receive possession

of flats, as was promised by accused company M/s Uppal Chadha Hi-

Tech (hereinafter referred to as the ‗company‘). It was alleged that in

his capacity as a Director of the said firm, the petitioner was

responsible for siphoning of the funds collected from the complainants.

iii.

During the pendency of the respective trials in FIRs No. 16/2018 and

49/2021, the accused persons therein settled the dispute with the

respective complainants amicably.

iv.

In FIR No. 16/2018, the accused persons moved an application for

compounding under Section 320 of the CrPC before the learned Trial

Court, which was allowed vide order dated 19.11.2019 passed by Sh.

Deepak Sherawat, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, South-East, Saket

Digitally Signed

By:RANJU BHALLA

Signing Date:24.11.2023

17:51:31

Signature Not Verified

W.P.(CRL) 562/2023

Page 3 of 28

and the accused persons were accordingly acquitted for offences under

Sections 406/420/120B of the IPC.

v.

FIR No. 49/2021 was quashed by a coordinate bench of this Court, vide

order dated 22.12.2022 passed in CRL.MC. 7083/2022 titled ‗Uppal

Chadha Hi Tech Developers Pvt. Ltd. & Ors. v. State & Ors.‘.

vi.

The present ECIR was lodged on 26.07.2019 by the Directorate of

Enforcement/respondent no. 2 (‗the department‘) against M/s Uppal

Chadha Hi-Tech, Harmandeep Singh, Gurjit Singh Kochar, Kritika

Gupta, Rajinder Singh Chadha – the petitioner and other unknown

persons.

vii.

After the ECIR was lodged, the department carried out a search and

seizure on 18.11.2022 under Section 17(1) of the Prevention of Money

Laundering Act, 2002 at the office and residential premises of the

petitioner. Various phones, documents, digital records and cash was

seized. Follow-up searches were conducted on 19.11.2022, 22.11.2022

and 09.12.202