New Delhi (ILNS): The Supreme Court has issued notice in a plea seeking CBI probe in a franchise scam, alleging that the Westland Trade Private Limited cheated and duped their customers by introducing bogus companies like Hyper Supermarket, Southland Retail, H Mart, Louies Salon, Franchisee World, etc.
The bench of Chief Justice S. A. Bobde and Justices A. S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).
A petition was filed by Mahendra Singh Rana and 37 others who paid money for the alleged fraud franchise. The company collected franchise fees of Rs 3 lakh, plus 18% GST and set up a cost of Rs 5,000 per sq ft and assured the following payouts: (i) 2% minimum guaranteed income on total store setup cost paid by franchise owner (ii) Store rent Rs 60 / sq ft (iii) 10% of sales as commission. The company also assured to take care of employee salaries, electricity bills, required licenses to run the store, etc.
It is alleged in the petition that the case is a well-planned criminal conspiracy, directors, partners, and employees deceived the petitioners by fraudulently and dishonestly inducing them to deliver their hard-earned money thereby causing injury to not only mind-body and property but also right to trade, life, liberty and dignity, guaranteed under Article 19 and 21 of the Constitution and hence, CBI, ED, SFIO probe is essential.
A plea was filed last month, asking for probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) into the scam. Those expected to be in the dock are the owners, directors, partners and other beneficiaries of DBM Retails Pvt Ltd. The PIL also alleged that the company had fake stores in Jammu, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, UP, MP, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Manipur, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.