Delhi High Court Issues Notice to MHA, CBI, ED, SFIO & Delhi Police On Plea Seeking Investigation On Westland Trade Franchise Scam

After the Supreme Court directed 'victims' of the Westland Trade Pvt Ltd (WTPL) franchise scam to move jurisdictional High Courts, the Delhi High Court today issued notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), and the Delhi Police in a plea seeking multi-agency investigation on a franchisee scam worth nearly Rs. 30 crore run by one Westland Trade Pvt Ltd (WTPL).

The petitioners before the court have alleged that WTPL has cheated and duped them by floating bogus companies such as Hyper Supermarket, Hyper Mart, Blue Mart, Big Mart and others. Earlier a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, after issuing notice on the plea last year had asked the petitioners to approach the jurisdictional high courts with their pleas, saying that it had made a "mistake" by agreeing to examine the pleas for probe by multiple agencies in the "franchise racket".

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, which on November 2 last year had issued notice to the Centre and its agencies on three separate pleas against 'Westland Trade Private Limited', asked the petitioners to approach the jurisdictional high court with their pleas.

The petition was heard by a bench of Justice Anu Malhotra and argued by Adv. Ashwini Upadhyay, who appeared for Mahendra Singh Rana and 37 other victims of the alleged franchise racket.

The plea seeks an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) & SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) or by a Special Investigation Team to investigate various offences including money laundering and black money hoarding by directors & beneficiaries of the company, which allegedly collected franchise fees of Rs 3 lakhs from the individual petitioners assuring certain payouts and attracted nearly 500 investors. The company then defaulted on the payment during the Covid-19 lockdown and sent an email in May 2020 claiming to be enforcing the Force Majeure clause listed in the agreement.

While mentioning that one FIR has already been lodged on the matter, the plea states that the injury is "large because under a well planned conspiracy, directors, sleeping partners and employees deceived the petitioners by fraudulently and dishonestly inducing them to deliver their hard earned money."

The case will be heard next on Apr 22.