Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

CRM M-36349 of 2012 [2] This order will dispose of two petitions for grant of pre-arrest bail bearing CRM M-36349 and M-39708 of 2012 in FIR No 130, dated October 23, 2012 under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506, 120-B IPC registered at Police Station Sadar, Kapurthala.

The FIR was registered against the petitioners at the instance of Dr.Harminder Singh Bains, Registrar of Punjab Technical University, Kapurthala alleging that petitioner Ajesh Gugnani, had been running a Regional Centre (For short 'the RC') at Calcutta given to him by Punjab Technical University (for short 'PTU'). A Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between the said petitioner Ajesh Gugnani and PTU on August 27, 2009 and September 29, 2012 and number of Learning Centers (for short 'the LCs') were working under the supervision of petitioner No.1. According to MoU, the RC was only authorized to provide logistic support to the LCs and the RC was nowhere authorised to receive any amount on behalf of PTU from LCs for marketing and promotion of courses without prior approval of PTU. The complainant received number of complaints from LCs regarding extortion of money by the petitioner from the said complainants. The LCs had supplied documentary proof to the complainant regarding extortion of undue money form LCs by petitioner No.1 Ajesh Gugnani. The name of PTU and its logo had been used by the accused for personal financial interest, tarnish the interest and image not only of the PTU but State of Punjab as well as the PTU is a University of the State Government. The complainant had received a complaint from G.N.K. CRM M-36349 of 2012 [3] Institute, Calcutta, wherein they had alleged that they had paid a sum of Rs.1.50 lacs to the accused in favour of an add company, namely, Vistar Add Com which has been run by the accused on the pretext of marketing of courses allotted to them and accused further assured them that he would receive the said money as per the norms and regulations of the PTU. Another complaint was received from Shri Shikshayatan College IT and Multimedia Centre, alleging that they had paid Rs.8 lacs to the accused in favour of an add company, namely, Vistar Add Com which is run by accused on the pretext of marketing of courses allotted to them. Sum of Rs.8 lacs was being demanded by Shri Shikshanyatan College from PTU having been paid to the accused in the name of PTU. Third complaint was received from Harvard International School of Silliguri, alleging that a sum of Rs.5 lacs had been paid to the accused for unseen and undeclared purpose which was illegal extortion. They had also applied for refund of the same from PTU. A complaint from Carolina Institute of Management and Technology, Kolkata had also been received alleging that Rs.4.20 lacs in favour of add company, namely, Vistar Add Com which is run by accused on the pretext of marketing of courses allotted to them and that accused had given an assurance that they were receiving money as per PTU norms and regulations. Another complaint from High Tech Computer Centre, Howrah, had been received that they had been made to pay a sum of Rs.1.15 lacs in favour of Vistar Add Com Company which is run by accused on the pretext of marketing of courses allotted to them and accused had further assured CRM M-36349 of 2012 [4] them that the money had been received by them under PTU norms. In this manner, the accused have committed cheating with the LCs as well as with the PTU by illegally receiving money without consent and approval of PTU.

Learned counsel for the petitioners has vehemently contended that there had been a tussle between Vice Chancellor and Dean of the University with regard to the office of Vice Chancellor as a result of which the MoU of the petitioner was cancelled. A writ petition had been filed by the firm of the petitioner and the order cancelling the MoU was set aside with a direction that same would be reconsidered by the University after giving a fair opportunity to the company of petitioner No.1. It has been argued that the FIR has been registered at Kapurthala whereas the transaction is stated to be of Kolkata. It has also been argued that RC is responsible for conducting the marketing, advertisements, campaign and strategies in print and electronic media for admission and brand promotion of the courses in PTU in coordination with PTU and that the RC is required to issue State level advertisements for admission notices for various courses in leading newspapers as per paras 5, 14 and 19 of sub-para 4.2 of the MoU, laying down the obligations of RC. As the entire onus of issuing advertisement was on the RC, the money had been received and spent on advertisement as per arrangement between RC and LCs according to the understanding between the University and petitioner No.1.

So far as the user of logo of PTU being used by RCs of University is concerned, counsel for the petitioners submits that as per the CRM M-36349 of 2012 [5] terms of MoU between RCs and PTU, the arrangement between them is not a "franchising arrangement" but is a private-public partnership arrangement the use of logo does not constitute any offence as it only represents the affiliation and the acknowledgement thereof by the University.

With the assistance of counsel for the petitioners and State counsel, I have gone through the record of the police to find out if the petitioners have been responsible for misusing the logo of PTU to achieve wrongful gain tarnishing the image of the University. It was found that in the correspondence between Matrix Infosys and other LCs, the logo of PTU has been used to deceive the general public into belief that the LCs like Globsyn Business School are approved LCs recognized by Ministry of HRD, Government of India and further authorized to admit students as per PTU norms. Another interesting feature which has transpired on perusal of the police file is that statements of some witnesses like Amir, Imtiaz, Raghav, Bakhtiar, Vishal Modi, Parshan Gaurav, Parul Mishra, Neeraj Tripathi Vivek and Vagadya have been recorded which prima facie show that the said students had taken admission in BBA course of LC, namely, Globsyn Business School and Globsyn New Centre in the year 2012. The letter dated July 17, 2012 purported to have been issued by RC M/s Matrix Infosys addressed to LC authorizing institute to admit students in BBA course was used to persuade the students to get admission in BBA Course but the said letter was subsequently found to be forged and fabricated. The CRM M-36349 of 2012 [7] money had been received from the abovesaid students. The allegations against the petitioners are just the tip of iceberg. The detailed investigation regarding the fraudulent transactions and fraudulent and deceptive transactions are yet to be made. The involvement of petitioners Ajesh Gugnani and Sanjeev Gugnani in the fraudulent education scam is apparent. The money having been received by misusing the name of PTU and not having been satisfactorily accounted for, it does not appear to be a case of extraordinary nature where pre-arrest bail could be granted. During the course of inquiry, the details of the record of shifting of money from one person to another or from one account to another, as a camouflage to cover the act of deception and cheating have to be deeply probed into for which the custodial interrogation of petitioners Ajesh Gugnani and Sanjeev Gugnani appears to be necessary.