Allahabad High Court
Charan Singh And Another vs State Of U.P. And 3 Others on 4 November, 2016
Bench: Ramesh Sinha, Alok Kumar Mukherjee
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
Court No. 36 AFR
Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 22582 of 2016.
Charan Singh & another vs. State of U.P. & others.
AND
Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 22732 of 2016.
Bechu Prasad Gupta & others vs. State of U.P. & others.
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha, J.
Hon'ble Alok Kumar Mukherjee, J.
(Delivered by Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha, J.)
1. Heard Sri V.K. Singh, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri S. Shekhar, learned counsel for the petitioners, Sri Vikas Sahai, learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the record.
2. Both the petitions arise out of same impugned F.I.R., hence both the petitions decided by this common judgment.
3. The allegations made in the impugned F.I.R. are that petitioner Bechu Prasad Gupta son of late Somar Gupta President Jai Gurudev Sangat Varanasi resident of house no. S-14/25B-1 Lachhipura Chaukaghat, police station Chetganj, Varanasi has given an application to the competent authority informing that Shobha Yatra will be taken out on 15.10.2016 at 10:00 a.m. for Prachar-Prasar of the messages of Baba Jai Gurudev Ji for Shakahar, Sadachar and Madhyanished from village Domari to Semra Parav, Rajghat Pull, Prahlad Ghat, Machhodari, Maidagin, Godawaliya, Ramapura Chauraha, Lauraveer, Nati Imli D.A.V. College Hartirath Golgadda and will return back to village Dongari, the application was given for permission to collect about 3000 disciples of Baba Jai Gurudev Ji Maharaj. The permission was granted on 23 conditions but on 15.10.2016 in the afternoon Bechu Prasad Gupta, President Jai Gurudev Sangat, Varanasi, the organizers Charan Singh and Babu Ram petitioners, Awadhesh Mani Tripathi of Reception Committee and Yashwant Prasad Chaurasia, Joint Organizer and Manager got collected about five lacs persons to show the power in conspiracy without informing the administration and stated to the crowd that those persons who will not go in the parikrama they will be liable for sin and exhorted them to follow the Shobha Yatra due to which large number of persons collected at the venue to participate in the Shobha Yatra. When they reached over Rajghat Bridge a huge crowed collected there, on account of which the incident took place on Rajghat Bridge in which 25 persons died. The petitioner Bechu Prasad Gupta organized a spiritual congregation to spread the messages of vegetarianism, chasitity, discipline and moral life among the disciples of Baba Jai Gurudev and general public through their present Guru Pankaj Ji Maharaj and also decided to hold a Shobha Yatra to spread the messages in general public also.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that petitioners Charan Singh and Babu Ram against whom the F.I.R. has been lodged are not the organizers of Jai Guru Dev Sangat Varanasi which had organized the Shobha Yatra and congregation and they were not even present at the time of incident as they were in Etawah and Mathura at their homes and they have been falsely implicated in the present case whereas petitioners Bechu Prasad Gupta, Awadhesh Mani Tripathi and Jaswant Prasad Chaurasiya though are the organizers/office bearers Jai Baba Gurudev Sangat, who had organized Shobha Yatra and Satsang but the said religious congregation was organized after taking due permission from the A.D.M. (City) Varanasi on a application moved by the petitioner Bechu Prasad Gupta on 5.9.2016. The said permission was granted by the A.D.M. (City) on 19th September, 2016 subject to certain conditions a copy of which has been annexed as annexure-3 to the present petition. He argued that there was serious lapse on the part of the administration because of lack of proper arrangement made by the administration on account of which incident took place on the bridge in which people have died and there appears to be no fault on the part of the petitioners for the incident. He further pointed out that State Government has also ordered a judicial inquiry of the incident by a retired High Court Judge. He submitted that from a perusal of the F.I.R. no offence whatsoever is made out against the petitioners, hence the impugned F.I.R. is liable to be quashed.
5. Per contra learned A.G.A. vehemently opposed the prayer for quashing of the impugned F.I.R. and has strongly rebutted the argument of learned counsel for the petitioners. He submitted that the petitioners Charan Singh and Babu Ram are connected with the said Sangat and are the members of the Jai Guru Dev Sangat. They played active role in getting the followers of the said Sangat collected in Varanasi which is also evident from para no.21 of the writ petition filed by the petitioners. Moreover, petitioner Bechu Prasad Gupta was the President of the said committee and the petitioners Awadhesh Mani Tripathi and Jaswant Prasad Chaurasia are the office bearers of the said organizing committee as is evident from the impugned F.I.R. itself. He argued that though on a application moved by petitioner Bechu Prasad Gupta, the permission was granted by the A.D.M. (City) Varanasi on 19th September, 2016 subject to 23 conditions. He had pointed out that in the application dated 5.9.2016 of Bechu Prasad Gupta it was mentioned that on 15.10.2016 near about 3000-4000 persons would participate in the Shobha Yatra and on 16.10.2016 near about 25000 persons would participate in the Satsong but about 5 lacs followers of the Jai Guru Baba Dev Sangat gathered to participate in the said Shobha Yatra and the information which has been given by the President as well as office bearers of the said Organizing Committe was a false and deceptive though they were conscious of the fact that followers are more in number and on an incorrect information given by them the situation became beyond control of the administration on 15.10.2016 as large number of people/disciples had gathered there to participate in the Shobha Yatra due to which 25 persons including men, women and children have lost their lives and several persons were injured. He vehemently argued that there has been gross violation of the conditions of the said permission granted to the said organization by the A.D.M. (City) Varanasi. He has drawn the attention of the Court towards Clause-13 of the said permission which number appears to deliberately has not been mentioned in the photocopy of order dated 19.9.2016 of A.D.M (City) Varanasi by the petitioner which is annexed as Annexure No.3 of the writ petition, the said condition is quoted hereinbelow:-
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6. He submitted that the act and conduct of the organizers of the said religious congregation was misleading on account of which the incident has happened and the petitioners, who are the members of the said Sangat and office bearers of the said Organizing Committee are equally responsible for such tragic incident, hence the impugned F.I.R. which discloses cognizable offence against the petitioners is not liable to be quashed.
7. Considered the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
8. From a perusal of the F.I.R. and the permission which was given by the A.D.M. (City) Varanasi on 19th September, 2016 for the said Shobha Yatra it appears that the same was granted subject to 23 conditions and it appears that the members and organizers of Jai Guru Dev Baba Sangat who are the petitioners have given a misleading information about the number of person, who would participate in the Shobha Yatra as the people, who had gathered for the said Shobha Yatra was much more than what has been mentioned by the petitioner Bechu Prasad Gupta in his application dated 5.9.2016. The petitioners were fully conscious and had knowledge that there were large number of people/deciples of the said Sangat but they gave a wrong information about the number of persons who would participate in the Shobha Yatra on 15.10.2016. There appears to be gross violation of the condition of the permission given by the A.D.M. (City) Varanasi on account of which 25 persons including men, women and children have lost their lives and several other person have received injuries, hence we do not find any good ground to quash the impugned F.I.R or to grant interim relief to the petitioners as it cannot be said that the impugned FIR does not disclose any offence.
9. The petitions lack merit and are accordingly dismissed.
(Alok Kumar Mukherjee, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.)
Dated 4.11.2016
Shiraz.
