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Only same transaction in a cheating case can be clubbed together into a single FIR

IN CRL. REF 1/2014, STATE versus KHIMJI BHAI JADEJA, the accused was allegedly one of the promoters of an investment scheme floated in and around Delhi. It is alleged that around 1,852 different victims were allured; induced and; cheated to invest different amounts of money, at different points of time, and at different places under the scheme, on the pretext that their money would be tripled within three days.

Relying on the judgement of the apex court in Narinderjit Singh Sahni&Anr. Vs. Union of India &Ors. (2002) 2 SCC, the Delhi High Court has held that in a case of inducement, allurement and cheating of large number of investors/ depositors in pursuance to a criminal conspiracy, each deposit by an investor constitutes a separate and individual transaction. All such transactions cannot be amalgamated and clubbed into a single FIR by showing one investor as the complainant, and others as witnesses.

Delhi Police had argued that every case of cheating and inducement of an investor constitutes the "same transaction", when such transactions are a sub-specie of a single specie of transaction – i.e. of a single conspiracy, then a single FIR is valid. But the High Court referring to Bombay High Court's judgment in ShapurjiSorabjiwhich held that for a series of acts to be regarded as forming the "same transaction", they must be connected together in some way, and there should be continuity of action.

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