Justice M. Nagaprasanna, while rejecting the petitions, observed that the case was not a mere money recovery dispute but prima facie discloses ingredients of criminal breach of trust and cheating.
The complainant accused the petitioners, Shilpa A. and her husband Kiran Kumar P., of defrauding her between February and December 2023. According to the complaint, the couple claimed to have influential contacts in private medical colleges and assured they could secure a medical seat for the complainant’s daughter, who had appeared for the NEET examination in 2023.
The complainant alleged that she initially paid ₹35 lakh in cash as demanded by the accused, followed by five bank transactions totalling ₹1.05 crore, making the total payment ₹1.4 crore. Despite repeated assurances, neither the medical seat materialised nor was the money returned till complaint was lodged in 2026.
The court rejected the petitioners’ argument that the matter was purely civil in nature and observed that “every transaction involving money does not, by that circumstance alone, shed its criminal complexion. Where the very foundation of the transaction is alleged to have been laid in deception... the cloak of a civil transaction cannot be permitted to smother a legitimate criminal investigation.”
“To obliterate the crime at this embryonic stage would amount to stifling an investigation into allegations which, on their face, discloses cognisable offences,” the court said while allowing investigation.