Sreya Kanugula
The Delhi HC had temporarily put a trial court order on hold which summoned Make My Trip’s (MMT) CEO, Deep Kalra, on a cheating charge booked against him by a lawyer.
This interim direction was given by Justice Anu Malhotra on the plea filed by Kalra that sought to quash the trial court order with the date March 3, 2020, and any proceedings derived from it.
The HC also gave notice to the complainant lawyer and the State along with an MMT employee, seeking response on the CEO’s plea by the 10th of February, 2021, the next hearing date.
The court stated that the matter will be re-notified for the 10th of February until which this impugned order against Mr Kalra will stay.
Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa, Mr Kalra’s representative, informed the court that the 2017 closure report filed by the police with regards to this case, stated that there was insufficient evidence and that this made the lawyer’s grievance a consumer dispute with no concealment insight.
The complainant filed this cheating case with the allegation that Make My Trip’s CEO and one of the employees of MMT who was responsible for his holiday package plan, had conspired to cheat him. This was stated under Kalra’s plea filed by the advocates, Ridhima Mandhar and Karthik Khanna.
The CEO informed the court, that after an initial enquiry was carried out in 2014, the police had stated that the dispute was purely civil and a cognisable offence hadn’t been carried out.
Despite this report, the Court of the Magistrate directed for an FIR to be registered and thus the FIR lodged the cheating and criminal conspiracy charges against MMT, Mr Kalra as well as the aforementioned company’s employee who had made the complainant’s holiday plan, the petition stated.
It continued to state, that the lawyer had filed a petition in protest against the closure report submitted by the police in 2019. In March 2020, the trial court granted the plea and summoned MMT’s CEO as well as the employee.
It has been written in the petition that, this was the reason behind the filing of the present petition request to quash the order of the trial court.