THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE SAMUDRALA GOVINDARA CRIMINAL PETITION No.3795 of 2008 ORDER: The petitioner/A6 is accused of offences punishable under Sections 420, 385/34 I.P.C. and Sections 4, 5 and 6 read with Sections 2(c),9,3 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. The 2nd respondent namely Corporate Frauds Watch Society, instituted complaint before the Magistrate which was referred to the Police for investigation under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. against Gold Quest Scheme being run by A1 namely Gold Quest International Limited. A1 to A5 are Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, Manager and Directors of the Company. It is stated that A6 is working as District Medical and Health Officer at Warangal and he became one of the promoters of the Company by joining its membership. Under the scheme, a person enrolls himself as member with entrance fee of Rs.460/- and purchasing business kit of Rs.2,300/- containing literature. That member who is called Independent Representative, has to purchase products from the company for his personal use and has to resell for retail profit, besides taking further members to join the scheme. It is virtually a pyramid scheme in which one member has to join minimum of two members and so on. After a stage, the membership becomes saturated as the members will not find new members for admission, in which event, the members who joined in the scheme in the last lap of the ladder will become cheated. It is contended that A6 is stated to have joined only A62 and A63 as members. It is not known how many members A62 and A63 enrolled and further enrolled. The matter is now under investigation. It is contended that A6 himself is a victim and therefore, he cannot be made an accused. Since A6 joined in the scheme in the initial lap, he cannot claim to be a victim. Assuming for the sake of argument that A6 is a victim in the scheme, still A6 wants further persons to become similar victims in his hands. Having regard to nature of the scheme and participation of A6 therein, I am of the opinion that this is not a fit case to quash FIR against him at its threshold. 2. Hence, the Criminal Petition is dismissed. ______________________________ JUSTICE SAMUDRALA GOVINDARAJULU Dt:15.12.2011 ysk THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SAMUDRALA GOVINDARAJULU CRIMINAL PETITION No.3795 of 2008 Dt:15.12.2011 ysk