The Jharkhand High Court quashed the proceedings against petitioners accused of illegal gratification and held that even if the averments were assumed to be true, no prima facie case was made out against the petitioners and its continuation will lead to abuse of process of court.
Brief Facts:
Petitions were filed for quashing of criminal proceedings against the petitioners whereby prima facie was found to be made out under Sections 150, 406, 468, 120B of the I.P.C. and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act for demanding illegal gratification and manipulating of attendance register.
Contentions of the Applicant:
The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner contended that there was no allegation of making any illegal demand of gratification against the petitioner. It was further argued that a private complaint was filed instead of filing a complaint with the CBI, which is competent to investigate such an offence. It was further argued that there was a vague and general allegation of forgery of the attendance roll and no specific reference or document has been produced to make out the offence of forgery.
Contentions of the Respondent:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents argued that to deny the regularization of service, the attendance register was manipulated and the attendance part was destroyed and another document in support of the complainant was also misappropriated by these petitioners.
Observations of the Court:
The court observed that the present case appears to be the hallmark of filing of false and motivated complaints and the departmental proceedings were initiated on vague and omnibus charges. It was further observed that there was no allegation of receiving any illegal gratification against the petitioners so an offence under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act would not be made out.
It was further stated by the court that only the complainant was examined in the present case and even if the averments were assumed to be true, no prima facie case was made out against the petitioners and its continuation will lead to abuse of process of court.
The decision of the Court:
The court allowed the petition and quashed and set aside the entire criminal proceedings.
Case Title: Gopal Dash Nigam vs. State of Jharkhand and Anr.
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Gautam Kumar Choudhary
Case No.: Cr.M.P. No. 902 of 2015
Advocate for the Applicant: Mr. Indrajit Sinha, Mr. Ajay Kumar Sah and Mr. Rishav Kumar
Advocate for the Respondent: Mr. Vineet Kumar Vashistha, Mr. R.S Mazumdar and Mr. Rohan Mazumdar
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