A Dutch NGO got relief from the Supreme Court after its complaint against an Andhra Pradesh-based family-run NGO, accused of duping it of ₹24 crore over a period of 10 years in the name of providing succour to 5,000 differently-abled children in 300 villages of the state, was quashed by Andhra Pradesh HC.

A bench comprising of Justice M R Shah and Justice B V Nagarathna criticised the HC for quashing the criminal complaint against the wife and so of the main accused through a sketchy judgment and said, "Now, the trial court should proceed with the trial against all the three accused."

Appearing for the foreign NGO before the SC advocates Vipin Nair and P B Suresh argued before the bench headed by Justice Shah that the commission of the offence was not denied and hence the HC was wrong in quashing the entire complaint against the wife and son of the main accused, which would obviously hold the man to take advantage during the trial.

The bench agreed and said:

"We are of the opinion that the impugned judgment and order passed by the HC quashing the entire criminal proceedings against the private respondents – accused Nos 2 & 3 (wife and the son) - is unsustainable. The HC has exceeded in its jurisdiction in quashing the entire criminal proceedings with respect to the very serious offences, in the exercise of powers under Section 482 Cr.P.C., by a sketchy judgment and order."
"Even the HC has not taken note of the charge-sheet filed against the accused which was after thorough investigation. Merely because in the subsequent MoU, the accused Nos 2 & 3 were not signatory and only the main signed, that does not mean the accused Nos 2 & 3 were not at all involved in the commission of the offence," the bench said, reversing the clean chit given by the HC.
"It is required to be noted that the offences alleged by the accused along with other IPC offences are for the offences under Section 120-B read with 34 of the IPC. If the criminal proceedings against A-2 & 3 are quashed and set aside in that case, straight away the benefit would go to the A-1 also as the offence under Section 120B and 34 would become redundant,"

"Friends Indeed" was approached by a family-owned NGO 'Association for Rural Development and Action Research (ARDAR) in 2004 pleading for funds by sweet-talking their area of activities are very similar to that of the foreign NGO. Taken in by the tall promise of taking care of 5,000 differently-abled children in 300 villages and opening a children's village for orphaned differently-abled children, the foreign NGO transferred three million Euros (Rs 24 crore) to ARDAR between 2004-2014.

But, finding that many schemes promised to be carried out have not taken off, the Dutch NGO through Johana Maria Legend filed a criminal complaint alleging that the family-owned NGO has siphoned off huge amounts from the funds meant for differently-abled children for the purpose of purchasing assets in their own names. Legend lodged a criminal complaint and the AP police filed a charge sheet.

Later an agreement was reached between the foreign NGO and the head of the family, which owned the NGO, for the return of the assets. However, not much was returned. But, taking advantage of the agreement, the wife and son of the accused moved the HC seeking quashing of the criminal complaint against them claiming that since the agreement was between the main accused and the foreign NGO, they had no role to play. The HC believed them and quashed the complaint.

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