Allahabad High Court
Abdul Mazeed And 6 Others vs State Of U.P. And Another on 17 February, 2023
Bench: Manju Rani Chauhan
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 45
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 41892 of 2022
Applicant :- Abdul Mazeed And 6 Others
Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Another
Counsel for Applicant :- Saurabh Yadav
Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Rajendra Singh
Hon'ble Mrs. Manju Rani Chauhan,J.
Heard Mr. Saurabh Yadav, learned counsel for the applicants, Mr. Rajendra Singh, learned counsel for the informant, Mr. K.P. Pathak, learned A.G.A. for the State as well as perused the entire material available on record.
The present 482 Cr.P.C. application has been filed to quash the charge-sheet dated 13.06.2022 and cognizance/summoning order dated 15.11.2022 passed in Criminal Case No.224655/2022 (State Vs. Abdul Mazeed and Others), arising out of Case Crime No.106 of 2022, under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 504, 506 I.P.C., Police Station-Lalpur/Pandeyput, District-Varanasi, pending in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Varanasi.
Learned counsel for the applicants submits that an FIR was lodged on 10.04.2022 at about 22:01 hrs by Shakeel against as many as nine named accused persons including the present applicants with the allegations that all the accused persons with intention to grab the property of the informant, have prepared forged documents. He further submits that the applicants are innocent and have been falsely implicated in the present case. The alleged documents is said to have been prepared in the year 2009 and the FIR has been lodged after a delay of so many years without giving any plausible explanation for the same. He further submits that the applicant nos. 2 to 7 were minor at that time and there is no allegations against them in the FIR as well as statement under Section 161 Cr.P.C. He further submits that no offence against the applicants is disclosed and the present prosecution has been instituted with a malafide intention for the purpose of causing harassment. He pointed out certain documents and statements in support of his contention. He, therefore, submits that the charge-sheet, summoning order as well as entire proceedings be quashed by this Court as the same is an abuse process of Court.
Per Contra, learned A.G.A. for the State as well as learned counsel for the informant has opposed the submissions made by the learned counsel for the applicants by submitting that the specific allegations regarding forged document being prepared by all the accused persons have been mentioned in the FIR as well as statement U/s 161 Cr.P.C. They further submits that a suit was filed by the accused persons, which was dismissed against which an appeal was also filed which was also dismissed, wherein it has been held by the court below that the documents prepared by the applicants are forged one. They further submits that presently, the applicant nos.2 to 7 are major and prima facie, offence are made out. He further submits that all the contentions raised by the applicants' counsel relate to disputed questions of fact. On the basis of material on record after conducting of statutory investigation under Chapter XII Cr.P.C. by the investigating officer, a strong prima facie case is made out against the applicant for the commission of the alleged incident. In support of his case, learned AGA has placed reliance upon the judgments of the Apex Court in the case of Dilbag Rai Vs. State of Haryana & Others reported in AIR 2019 (SC) 693 and Central Bureau of Investigation Vs. Arvind Khanna reported in MANU/SC/1432/2019.
I have considered the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the records of the present application.
This Court finds that the submissions made by the applicants' learned counsel call for adjudication on pure questions of fact which may adequately be adjudicated upon only by the trial court and while doing so even the submissions made on points of law can also be more appropriately gone into by the trial court in this case. The issue whether it is appropriate for this Court being the Highest Court to exercise its jurisdiction under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to quash the charge-sheet and the proceedings at the stage when the Magistrate has merely issued process against the applicants and trial is to yet to come only on the submission made by the learned counsel for the applicants that present criminal case initiated by opposite party no.2 are not only malicious but also abuse of process of law has elaborately been discussed by the Apex Court in the following judgments:-
(i) R.P. Kapur Versus State of Punjab; AIR 1960 SC 866,
(ii) State of Haryana & Ors. Versus Ch. Bhajan Lal & Ors.;1992 Supp.(1) SCC 335,
(iii) State of Bihar & Anr. Versus P.P. Sharma & Anr.; 1992 Supp (1) SCC 222,
(iv) Zandu Pharmaceuticals Works Ltd. & Ors. Versus Mohammad Shariful Haque & Anr.; 2005 (1) SCC 122,
(v) M. N. Ojha Vs. Alok Kumar Srivastava; 2009 (9) SCC 682,
(vi) Mohd. Allauddin Khan Vs. The State of Bihar & Others; 2019 0 Supreme (SC) 454,
(vii) Nallapareddy Sridhar Reddy Vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh & Ors.; 2020 0 Supreme (SC) 45,
(viii) Rajeev Kaurav Vs. Balasahab & Others; 2020 0 Supreme (SC) 143 and lastly
(ix) M/s Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of Maharashtra; 2021 SCC Online SC 315.
In view of the aforesaid, this Court does not deem it proper, and therefore cannot be persuaded to have a pre-trial before the actual trial begins. A threadbare discussion of various facts and circumstances, as they emerge from the allegations made against the accused, is being purposely avoided by the Court for the reason, lest the same might cause any prejudice to either side during trial. But it shall suffice to observe that the perusal of the F.I.R. and the material collected by the Investigating Officer on the basis of which the charge sheet has been submitted makes out a prima facie case against the accused at this stage and there appear to be sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused. I do not find any justification to quash the charge sheet or the proceedings against the applicants arising out of them as the case does not fall in any of the categories recognized by the Apex Court which may justify their quashing.
The prayer for quashing the impugned charge-sheet dated 13.06.2022 and summoning order dated 15.11.2022 as well as the entire proceedings of the aforesaid case are refused, as I do not see any abuse of the court's process at this pre-trial stage.
The present application has no merit and is, accordingly, rejected.
Order Date :- 17.2.2023
Jitendra/-
