Cheating & Criminal Conspiracy Case: Delhi Court Awards 7 Yrs Of Imprisonment To Ex MLA And His Wife, Fines Rs 44 Lakh

The Rouse Avenue court on Monday has awarded 7 years of jail punishment to a former MLA, Ranbir Singh Kharb and his wife, Anita Kharb in a cheating and criminal conspiracy case.

The court has also imposed a fine of Rs. 44 lakh on the couple.

This case pertains to cheating with the investors from 1998-2004. During this period, Kharb was the sitting MLA.

A case was registered by the Economic Offense Wing of the Delhi Police in 2006.

According to the prosecution, the convicts, fraudulently and dishonestly induced the complainant, Pravin Kumar, for investing money in the company and in a consequence thereof, he invested a sum of Rs.23 lakhs, without getting any return/refund.

Ranbir Singh Dahiya was defrauded with Rs. 1.34 Crores.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Priyanka Rajpoot sentenced the convicts Ranbir Singh Kharb and Anita Kharb for a period of 7 years of imprisonment on February 24.

The court stated that convict Ranbir Kharb is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of 7 years and fine of Rs. 22 Lakh for the offence punishable under section 420 of IPC read with section 120-B of IPC.

Similarly, convict Anita Kharb is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of 7 years and a fine of Rs. 22 Lakh for the offence punishable under section 420 of IPC read with section 120-B of IPC.

The 3rd convict (Satprakash) has been released on probation by the court.

He is directed to furnish bonds in terms of Section 4 of said Act in the sum of Rs. 50,000/- with one surety in the like amount.
Ranbir and Anita Kharb were on bail. They are directed to surrender before the court on Monday.

The counsel for convicts appearing for them requested the Court to suspend the sentence and grant bail to them till the filing of appeal against the judgment as well as against the order on sentence.

The Court noted that the provision of suspension of sentence under section 389(3) of Cr.P.C. will not apply as the Court has sentenced the convicts Ranbir Singh Kharb and Anita Kharb to imprisonment for a term of 7 years.

Previously on Saturday the court directed that the convicts Ranbir Singh Kharb and Anita Kharb are directed to surrender before the Court on the next date of hearing.

It was alleged that the accused persons, namely Ranbir Singh Kharb, Anita Kharb and Satprakash, committed offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy and had defrauded various innocent investors, who largely are their kith and kin of the accused persons, in the name of ‘investments’ in the company called M/s Jyoti Fair Finance Company.

It was also alleged that the accused persons, during the period of 1998- 2004 hatched a criminal conspiracy to cheat the general public, by way of a scheme floated through a finance company called M/s Jyoti Fair Finance Company.

As per the prosecution, the accused persons induced the general public to invest money in the company by alluring them with high interest rates and monetary gains, however, the accused persons never had the intention to return the money.

Whatever payments, if at all made, were made to lure/induce innocent investors to make further investments.

The accused Anita Kharb was the director of the company. She gave receipts in the name of the company and often induced the general public and her acquaintances to invest money in the company.

According to the prosecution, Convict Satprakash too, like accused Anita Kharb, gave receipts in the name of the company and often induced the general public and his acquaintances to invest money in the company.

Accused Ranbir Singh Kharb is an alleged kingpin of the entire matter, even though he didn’t hold any position in the company.

However, as per the prosecution, he latently used to run the said company, without wearing any hat of director, employee, etc. Almost every victim has alleged inducement at the hands of Kharb.