Plea before Supreme Court seeks CBI, ED probe into alleged fraud by Vivek Bindra venture

The Supreme Court has sought the responses of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to a plea seeking a probe into alleged fraudulent activities linked to motivational speaker Dr Vivek Bindra and his enterprise, Bada Business Private Limited [Shubham Chaudhary and ors vs Union of India and ors]..A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and SVN Bhatti on February 26 also issued notices to the Union government and 13 State governments in the matter..The Court was dealing with a petition which claimed that it is highlighting 'one of biggest scams in the digital era', involving cheating and fraud through the use of social media platforms. The victims, it was argued, have now sought justice and accountability for the losses incurred due to their association with the company run by Bindra.Bindra purportedly collected amounts ranging from ₹10,000 to ₹1 lakh to enroll members of the general public and individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to a lucrative investment scheme, it is stated. Many youngsters were then misled into believing that they will receive training from esteemed personalities, but were instead tasked with acting as commission agents to promote and sell the same course to others, it is alleged.The matter is likely to be taken up next on April 10..Senior Advocate Vikas Singh with advocates Sureshan P, Vikas Nagwan, Yogesh Aggarwal, Manvi Rajvanshy, Kamal Jindal, Deepika Kalia, Keshav Khandelwal, Vasudha Singh, Shivam Yadav, and Deepak Joshi represented the petitioners, led by one Shubham Chaudhary. .In related news, Bindra and fellow motivational speaker Sandeep Maheshwari have been engaged in a war of words since December 11, when the former released a video titled ‘Big Scam Exposed.' .While the video did not name Bindra, social media users made the connection. The allegation was that Bindra was running a scam and fooling young people by offering a "10-day MBA course."Within a few days, Maheshwari’s video garnered millions of views. Soon after, Maheshwari claimed that he was being pressured to take down the video and that goons were sent to his house as well.Bindra, however, denied any wrongdoing, and released a video on his YouTube channel answering Maheshwari’s allegations.A court in Haryana recently restrained the YouTubers from posting any defamatory content against each other on social media or offline platforms.This was after the Delhi High Court had in January restrained Bindra from posting any defamatory/disparaging video or material against Maheshwari.Bindra’s YouTube channel has been subscribed by over 21 million people..[Read order]