Indrajit Chatterjee, J. - (1.) THIS is an application under Sections 397/401 read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter called as the said Code) praying for an order to quash the proceeding being G.R. Case No. 1947 of 2014 arising out of Shakespeare Sarani Police Station Case No. 289 dated 24th August, 2014 under Sections 406, 420 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (henceforth called as the Code) which was initiated on the basis of a complaint filed by the opposite party No. 2, Simplex Infrastructure Limited (hereinafter called as SIL) and presently pending before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Calcutta. It has also been prayed for that the orders passed by the Learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Calcutta, dated 25 of August, 2014 be quashed and set aside. In the F.I.R. giving rise to the above G.R. Case the de facto complainant that is one Asish Basu, General Manager of SIL has claimed that in the year 2010 two persons namely Ajay Maggu, accused No. 4 and Sudarshan Supe, accused No. 5 came to the registered office of SIL and represented that they are responsible officers of Siemens Limited, a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 having its registered office in Mumbai. They represented that they have secured a tender to construct a power plant at Dahej, Gujarat and if that SIL undertakes to work as sub -contractor under that Siemens then that SIL may earn huge profit. They also allured the officers of SIL that they will advance huge sum of money out of which SIL can complete the work.
(2.) AT first the de facto complainant and the other officials of SIL were not inclined to enter into that contract but when various other officials of Siemens Ltd. namely A.K. Malhotra, accused No. 6, V. Namboodiripad accused No. 7, P.M.S. Bajaj, accused No. 8 and A. Taneja (not accused) started visiting the office of the SIL and represented that as the work to be executed by SIL will actually be from the fund provided by the said Siemens Ltd. as advance to SIL then why SIL should not enter into the agreement. On this background the de facto complainant and other officials of the SIL agreed to enter into the agreement with Siemens Ltd. for working as subcontractor in that Dahej power plant project. The Siemens Ltd. gave adjustable advance of a few crores of rupees as security and it took various bank guarantees from SIL for the aforesaid sum of money. The Siemens Ltd. made a clause in the agreement that after completion of the work on monthly basis the SIL will be entitled for the payment of the work done by it but Siemens could retain a portion of the money payable, which would be paid only after completion of the work. At first this clause was not agreed upon but the accused persons stated that the said money will be also released in favour of SIL but SIL will have to furnish bank guarantees. The officials of Siemens also apprised the de facto complainant and others that such bank guarantees will be a mere formality as they will never enforce such bank guarantees to be executed by SIL as the officials of Siemens apprised that SIL will only give skill and workmanship and entire project will be funded by Siemens Ltd. The work started and when the project was almost complete the officials of Siemens certainly changed their colour and stopped making payments regularly and as a result Rs. 25 crores is due and payable by Siemens to SIL. A meeting was held in June 2014 in between the officials of Siemens including the accused persons and officials of SIL. They assured the officials of SIL that if the de facto complainant company continue with the completion of work then payment should be released immediately. Unfortunately, no payment was made and the de facto complainant and others made telephone to Parvesh Mittal accused No. 1(A -1), S. Krishnamurthy accused No. 2(A -2) and Namit Jetly accused No. 3 (A -3) and others of Siemens Ltd. for money. They stated that if SIL do not complete the work the bank guarantees which are lying with them would be encashed by them and SIL will also not be paid its legal dues which was to the tune of Rs. 25 crores.
(3.) IT has been claimed in the F.I.R. that although SIL has completed the job except tit -bit things, it came to know that one Somnath Datta of Siemens Ltd. came down to Kolkata from Mumbai and is trying to encash the said bank guarantees. It has also been claimed that the de facto complainant company SIL only entered into the contract out of misrepresentation that the entire project will be funded by Siemens Ltd. and now the Siemens is not paying any money and the dues is to the tune of Rs. 25 crores. It has also been claimed as stated above that S. Datta was trying to encash the bank guarantees and it amounts to criminal breach of trust, it has also been claimed that the accused persons entered into criminal conspiracy to cheat SIL in respect of a sum of Rs. 25 crores.;