This book shows how a crisis manager handled a disagreement repackaged as a criminal complaint

In Raipur, Chhattisgarh, a dispute over a Rs 30-crore scrap contract between two companies, RK Engineering and Kedhari Traders, began like any standard commercial fallout. Their agreement included a formal arbitration clause that was supposed to keep disputes civil, structured and private.

But instead of invoking arbitration, one party filed an FIR under Sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, accusing the other of criminal breach of trust and cheating. There was no violence, no evidence of fraud, but a contractual disagreement repackaged as a criminal complaint.

Once the FIR was filed, the dynamic changed completely. The accused party was suddenly facing reputational damage, custodial risk and enormous pressure to settle. The legal system had been turned into a negotiating tool.

Eventually, the Chhattisgarh High Court intervened. The judges reviewed the FIR and ruled that it was a clear misuse of process. They emphasised that civil disputes, especially those protected by arbitration clauses, cannot be converted into criminal matters to gain leverage.

The FIR was quashed, and the court called it an abuse of the legal process. It was not a headline-grabbing case, but it was a textbook example of how criminal law is sometimes used, not to punish a crime, but to...

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