The Allahabad High Court dismissed the application seeking quashing of the chargesheet by placing the defence version related to facts that are yet to be examined by the Court below.
A single judge bench of this Court comprising of Hon’ble Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav held that while considering the prayer for quashing of the charge sheet, this Court cannot examine any defence of the accused which has yet to be placed before the Court below.
Brief Facts:
By this application, the applicant had prayed for the quashing of the entire registered proceedings under Sections 420, 376,306, 406,120-B IPC and Section 67 of IT Act and Section 3/4 of D.P.Act, including the charge sheet dated 12.05.2022 and the summoning order dated 18.06.2022. The background of the case is that the applicant and daughter of opposite party no. 2/informant came in contact through Facebook. They started meeting frequently, and their marriage date has been fixed for 15/05/2019. It is alleged against the applicant that without any reason, he denied marriage because his family members said to have refused marriage. After this, the informant's daughter consumed poisonous substances and died.
During the investigation, no case was found against the applicant, and therefore, a final report was submitted. The mother of the deceased objected to the report and probe for further investigation into the matter, upon which the inquiry officer recommended further investigation under Section 173(8) Cr.P.C. thereafter vide order dated 18.2.2022. Thereafter, investigating officer submitted a charge sheet against the applicant on 7.5.2022 upon which the Court below took cognizance vide order dated 12.05.2022 and summoned the applicant to face the trial.
Contentions of the Applicant:
The learned Counsel for the applicant submitted that the victim and applicant used to chat on Facebook and with the passage of time, they developed love and intimacy and with the consent of the family members their marriage was settled but on coming to know that daughter of the informant is involved in several criminal cases, his family refused for the marriage. It was further contended that making refusal to marry by the applicant to the deceased cannot be said to be an instigation on the part of the applicant.
Contentions of the Respondent:
The learned Counsel for the Respondent submitted that a suicide note in the handwriting of the deceased is found and the same been sent before the handwriting expert and there is a report to the effect that the victim herself wrote the same. The Investigating Officer investigated the matter and rightly, submitted a charge sheet against the applicant.
Observations of the Court:
From the perusal of the material on record and looking into the facts of the case, this Court opined that at this stage, it cannot be said that no offence is made out against the applicant. All the submissions made at the bar relate to the disputed question of fact, which the Court cannot adjudicate upon under Section 482 Cr.P.C.
Further, whether it is a case of entering into a relationship with the deceased with or without consent or whether he played any active direct or indirect role that leads deceased to commit suicide also cannot be looked into at this stage. The bench held that at the stage of charge sheet, Court concerned has to examine only upon the documents collected during investigation by Police, who submitted charge sheet and all other evidence as alleged by the applicant has to be examined during trial when both the parties adduce defence.
The decision of the Court:
The Allahabad High Court, dismissing the petition, held that while considering the prayer for quashing of the charge sheet, the Court cannot examine any defence of the accused which has yet to be placed before Court below.
Case Title: Kalia Pratap Singh vs State of UP and anr.
Coram: Hon’ble Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav
Case no.: APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 33349 of 2022
Advocate for the Applicant: - Shri Krishna Mishra,Ajay Mishra,Sheshadri Trivedi
Advocate for the Respondents: - G.A.,Ashish Pandey,Pragya Pandey
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