CBI to probe Vivek Bindra ‘scam’? Supreme Court issues notice. What's the case?

A bench of justices MM Sundresh and SVN Bhatti sought the Centre and others' responses to a plea filed by Shubham Chaudhary and others.

The Supreme Court has issued notice on a petition seeking direction to constitute a special team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the alleged large-scale, nationwide scam perpetrated and done by motivational speaker Vivek Bindra and his Bada Business Pvt Ltd. A bench of justices MM Sundresh and SVN Bhatti on Monday sought the Centre and others' responses to the petition filed by Shubham Chaudhary and others.

Motivational speaker Vivek Bindra

"Issue notice returnable in six weeks," the bench said on the February 26 order, news agency ANI reported.

The petitioners claimed that they had deposited their hard-earned money to the money chain like scheme of the Bada Business Pvt Ltd. Advocates Vikas Singh, Sureshan P Vikas Nagwan and Yogesh Aggarwal appeared for the petitioners.

What did petitioners say?

• According to the petitioners, the issue has national ramifications as the complainants hail from different states and have already submitted written complaints to the local police,
• They prayed for directions to the Centre government to constitute a special investigation team of the CBI to probe the alleged scam perpetrated and done by Vivek Bindra and Bada Business Pvt Ltd whereby he has duped and cheated the petitioners and other general public.
• According to the petition, despite submitting written complaints by the petitioners and other similarly placed individuals, no action has been taken by the police.
• "Keeping in view of the widespread nature of the scam running in various states, it is imperative to direct a centralized agency to probe the matter so as to avoid multiplicity of proceedings, a fair investigation, and a one-stop point of contact for the youth duped by the said Bindra. It is most respectfully submitted that the multiple complaints submitted by the petitioners and similarly placed others disclose a prima facie case punishable under Section 420, 406 read with Section 34 of IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 and hence a writ of mandamus as prayed in the petition is required to be issued to the respondents," the petition said.
• "In such circumstances referred to above, the writ petitioners are here before this Court with the present writ petition seeking appropriate relief. The complaints submitted by the petitioner to the local police authorities will disclose that the accused tricked people into giving him their money through a Ponzi scheme that promised big returns. The alleged Ponzi scheme is similar to one scam run by a 26-year-old BTech graduate named Anubhav Mittal of Noida," read the petition.

What's the case against Vivek Bindra?

• It is submitted that Vivek Bindra is a self-proclaimed motivational speaker and who, along with his marketing team, deceived the petitioners and other thousands of youngsters, who hail from over a dozen different states from all over India.
• "The modus operandi adopted by said person and company is that he uses names of well-known personalities on his websites, in banner advertisements and extensively market out the same by falsely representing that the said known personalities are "Professors" in the paid courses run under the banner of Bada Business and Vivek Bindra," the petition said.
• The petitioners said the extensive advertisements are being run on various social media platforms with the sole purpose of enrolling the youngsters in a course that misleadingly promised to train the enrolled candidates in the modes and methods of building a successful business through which one could earn anywhere between ₹15,000 and ₹1,00,000 per month, failing which Vivek Bindra promised to refund the entire fee.