Karnataka High Court quashes cheating case against Winzo over alleged PAN card misuse
The Karnataka High Court on Saturday allowed a petition filed by Winzo Games to quash a cheating case filed against it in connection with allegations that an individual had stolen a woman's PAN card details and misused it on the online gaming platform.
Justice M Nagaprasanna pronounced the verdict this afternoon.
"(Petition) allowed, (case) quashed. It is made clear that the quashment of the proceedings in the impugned crime will not come in the way of any other accused or any other pending crime," the Court said.
The cheating case is tied to a complaint filed in July 2024, where a woman alleged that her PAN card details were stolen and misused by someone else on Winzo. Reportedly, the complaint was lodged by the woman on a suggestion by Winzo so that a tax deducted at source (TDS) amount could be reversed.
The complaint was filed against the person accused of misusing the PAN card details. However, a case was also later registered against Winzo, accusing it of offences under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 66(c) (identity theft) and (d) (cheating by personation) of the Information Technology Act, 2000,
In November 2024, the High Court stayed any coercive action against Winzo after noting that "the petitioner (Winzo) who cautioned the complainant is also dragged into the web of crime."
In January this year, the Court told Winzo's representatives to appear before the police so that their statement could be taken in the case, but warned that no coercive action should be taken against the company under the garb of investigation.
Today, Winzo's plea to quash the case against it altogether was allowed by the High Court. Senior Advocate Sandesh J Chouta led arguments for Winzo. The company's petition was filed through Advocate Amith Nayak.
Notably, the PAN card case was among the offences cited by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as predicate offences to justify its ongoing probe against Winzo.