Jalandhar, March 13:- In a ten-year-old fraud case related to Krishna Resorts, located on the Jalandhar–Phagwara Highway, the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Harpreet Kaur has ordered the acquittal of prominent Chartered Accountant Gurcharan Singh Syal.
During the hearing, the court ruled in favor of Gurcharan Singh Syal due to lack of sufficient evidence and stated that the complainant failed to prove the allegations. Senior advocate Darshan Singh Dayal, who represented Syal, said the case was related to M/s Krishna Real Estate Enterprises Private Limited, associated with the MBD Group. In 2016, a case was registered against Syal under sections 420, 465, 466, and 468 of the IPC.
After closely examining the case, the court observed in its judgment that the prosecution failed to prove allegations such as forgery in the vakalatnama signed by Syal as a director, any initial intention of fraud, or any financial loss caused to the complainant.
During cross-examination, the complainant admitted that he was neither a director nor an employee of the company, and therefore had no authority to file the present criminal case. The court also noted that Syal had not caused any financial loss to the company.
The judgment further pointed out several shortcomings in the investigation. The court observed that the main directors of the MBD Group — Satish Bala Malhotra, Sonika Malhotra, and Monica Malhotra — never appeared before the police to give statements, nor were their statements recorded by the investigating officer under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The court also stated that the Company Law Board, in its earlier orders, had maintained the status of Gurcharan Singh Syal as a director, and during court proceedings he was also addressed as a director. It was found that he had not used any unauthorized method while signing the company seal or the vakalatnama.
Agreeing with the arguments presented by Syal’s counsel D.S. Dayal, the court not only rejected the allegations made by the complainant but also ordered the acquittal of Gurcharan Singh Syal.