Allahabad High Court
Ashfaq vs State Of Up Thru. Prin. Secy. Home ... on 1 March, 2023
Bench: Ramesh Sinha, Narendra Kumar Johari
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 1
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 1703 of 2023
Petitioner :- Ashfaq
Respondent :- State Of Up Thru. Prin. Secy. Home And Ors.
Counsel for Petitioner :- Ashok Kumar,Chandra Prakash
Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J.
Hon'ble Narendra Kumar Johari,J.
Heard Shri Ashok Kumar, learned Counsel for the petitioner, Shri D.S. Rana, learned Additional Government Advocate for the State-respondents and perused the FIR as well as material brought on record.
This writ petition has been filed by the petitioner - Ashfaq with a prayer to quash the impugned FIR No.0001 of 2023, under Section 2/3 of U.P. Gangsters & Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, Police Station Gola, District Lakhimpur Kheri; with a further prayer to not arrest the petitioner in pursuance of the impugned FIR.
It has been argued by learned Counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case on the basis of only one case shown in the gang chart as Case Crime No.179 of 2022, under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 403, 41, 411 I.P.C. It is further submitted that the petitioner has already been granted bail in the aforesaid case by the court below vide order dated 26.04.2022, copy of which is annexed as Annexure No.3 to the petition. He further submits that the petitioner is neither member of any gang nor run any gang involved in anti-social activities. The allegations levelled against the petitioner is absolutely false, frivolous and baseless just for harassment, hence the present F.I.R. is liable to be quashed.
Learned Additional Government Advocate, on the other hand, has submitted that co-accused Nafish and Imran, had earlier approached this Court by way of filing Crl. Misc. Writ Petition Nos.230 of 2023 and 349 of 2023 respectively, which were dismissed by a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court vide orders dated 11.01.2023 and 16.01.2023. He further submits that from a perusal of the allegations made in the impugned F.I.R., it cannot be said that no cognizable offence is made out against the petitioner, hence the impugned F.I.R. is not liable to be quashed. He has further submitted that the Gangster Act can be invoked even on the basis of single case. In support of her submissions, she has relied upon the Apex Court judgment in the case of Shraddha Gupta v. State of U.P. and others [2022 Law Suit (SC) 535].
After having examined the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the parties and perused the impugned F.I.R. as well as considering the fact that petitions, filed by identically situated co-accused - Nafish and Imran, had already dismissed by a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court, we are of the opinion that the impugned F.I.R. discloses cognizable offence against the petitioner, hence, no interference is called for by this Court in its extraordinary power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for quashing of the F.I.R. or for grant of any interim relief to the petitioner.
The petition lacks merit and is, accordingly, dismissed.
(Narendra Kumar Johari, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.)
Order Date :- 1.3.2023
Anand Sri./-
