Supreme Court Refuses To Vacate Stay On FIR Against WinZO, Director Over Alleged BOT Use To Defeat Players

The Supreme Court on Monday (May 18) refused to interfere with the Punjab and Haryana High Court's order staying further proceedings in an FIR against WinZO Pvt Ltd and its director over allegations that the gaming platform used “BOTs” to cheat users.

It requested the High Court to endeavour to decide the matter by June 15, 2026.

A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh said there was force in the submission that courts ordinarily should not stall investigations. However, since the High Court had already fixed the matter for final hearing on May 26, 2026, it declined to interfere.

“Though we find force in the submissions made by the learned Senior Counsel Mr. Gaurav Agrawal that as a matter of course, Courts shall not prevent the investigation from going on, the fact remains that the matter has been fixed for final hearing on 26th May, 2026. Only on that premise, we are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order except by requesting the High Court to make an endeavour to dispose of the main matter...on or before 15.06.2026,” the Court observed.

The case arose from a complaint by Dinesh Kumar, who alleged that he lost Rs. 42 lakh while playing real money games on the WinZO platform. He alleged that the platform deployed BOTs to defeat genuine players.

Before the High Court, the petitioners said Kumar had played 7,522 games on the platform between September 2021 and April 2024. They said he continued playing even after first alleging use of BOTs in May 2024. According to them, he played 9,261 more games between May 2024 and May 2025. He also played 457 games after filing his complaint with the cyber crime police.

The petitioners further said Kumar had initially sought help in recovering his losses. After the allegations were denied, he asked for closure of his complaint.

They also argued that similar FIRs registered in Rajasthan, Delhi and Bengaluru had either been quashed or ended in cancellation reports. They pointed out that the Karnataka High Court quashed one such FIR in February 2026. An Enforcement Directorate complaint arising from those cases remains pending.

On April 9, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed further proceedings in the FIR till the next date of hearing, which was fixed for May 26.