Allahabad High Court
Anurag Pandey And 2 Others vs State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home ... on 8 May, 2025
Author: Alok Mathur
Bench: Alok Mathur
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC-LKO:26904
Court No. - 12
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 1296 of 2025
Appellant :- Anurag Pandey And 2 Others
Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home Deptt. Lko. And Another
Counsel for Appellant :- Vyas Narayan Shukla
Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Alok Mathur,J.
1. Heard Sri Vyas Narayan Shukla, learned counsel for revisionist as well as learned Additional Government Advocate for the State.
2. By means of the present appeal under Section 14-A(1) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 against the impugned order dated 27.01.2025 passed by Special Judge (SC/ST(P.A.) Act), Sultanpur in Special Trial No. 199/2016 (Smt. Mamta Vs. Anurag Pandey and others) and under Section 376-D,, 356, 506 I.P.C. & Section 3(2) 5 of SC/ST Act wherein the application for discharge has been rejected.
3. It has been submitted by learned counsel for appellants that in the present case a first information report was lodged by respondent No. 2 in Case Crime No. 552/2013 U/S 376, 354, 506 I.P.C. and subsequently Section 376 was changed to Section 376-D. The police investigated the said case and submitted a final report in the court. Pursuant to which a protest application was filed by respondent No. 2.
4. The protest application was allowed and the case was treated to be a complaint case and statements U/S 200 and 202 Cr.P.C. were recorded and notices were issued to the appellants. Appellants appeared before the trial court and moved an application for discharge U/S 245 of Cr.P.C. In the said application, the entire thrust of the arguments were with regard to false implication of the appellants.
5. It was stated that the first information report is motivated and false inasmuch as the husband of the complainant is an employee of one Navin Pratap Singh who is an accused in Case Crime No. 289/2010 U/S 147, 148, 302, 149, 307/149, 323/149, 504, 506 I.P.C which F.I.R. was lodged by father of the appellant No. 1 and appellant No. 2 was the injured witness in the said case while appellant No. 3 is the son of the complainant in the said case.
6. After trial Navin Pratap Singh was found to be guilty and was convicted by the trial court by judgment and order dated 13.01.2020 by the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Court No. 4, Pratapgarh. It is stated that merely out of vengeance the complainant who is the wife of the driver employed by Navin Pratap Singh has lodged the said F.I.R. against the appellants.
7. The trial court after considering the material on record, specially the statements of the prosecutrix wherein she has clearly implicated all the appellants with regard to sexual assault upon her, has rejected the application for discharge holding that the implication of the appellants is extremely clear from the material on record and at the stage of discharge where only the evidence of the prosecution has been recorded only the material on record has to be considered and accordingly rejected the application for discharge.
8. Learned counsel for appellants has submitted that in an application for discharge U/S 245(2) of Cr.P.C. the statute provides that only the evidence tendered by the prosecution would be considered and in the discretion of the Magistrate in case no case is made out on the accused he would be liable to be discharged but the Magistrate would not be precluded from looking into the other material on record in nature of the police report where there is sufficient material to indicate that the appellants were not involved in the said incident.
9. Learned A.G.A. on the other hand has submitted that at the stage of discharge U/S 245 Cr.P.C., the only material which would be cogent and relevant would be the statements of the prosecution witnesses which have been recorded by the trial court. In the present case apart from the other material, the evidence of the prosecutrix is extremely clear and unequivocal where she has alleged sexual assault by all the appellants and their implication is extremely clear and unequivocal and consequently no case for discharge is made out by the appellants and accordingly prays for dismissal of the appeal.
10. I have heard rival contention and perused the record.
11. It is noticed that after final report was filed by the police after investigation wherein the implication of the appellants was found to be false and mala fide on account of the fact that the employer of the husband of the complainant had been convicted at the behest of the appellants where a first information report was lodged by father of the appellant No. 1 while appellant No. 2 was the injured witness in the said case and appellant No. 3 was the close relative of the complainant, the final report was submitted. The protest application preferred by appellant No. 2 was treated as complaint and statement U/S 200 and 202 of Cr.P.C. were recorded.
12. To appreciate the arguments of the appellants it would be necessary to quote Section 245 of Cr.P.C. which is as under:-
"245. When accused shall be discharged.
(1) If, upon taking all the evidence referred to in Section 244, the Magistrate considers, for reasons to be recorded, that no case against the accused has been made out which, if unrebutted, would warrant his conviction, the Magistrate shall discharge him.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prevent a Magistrate from discharging the accused at any previous stage of the case if, for reasons to be recorded by such Magistrate, he considers the charge to be groundless."
13. From the above, it is clear that at the stage of consideration of the said case, the material before the Magistrate is the evidence led by the prosecution. There is no dispute that there is a clear implication with regard to the appellants considering the evidence of the prosecutrix where she has levelled clear allegations against the appellants for sexual assaulting her on the date of incident. At the stage of Section 245 Cr.P.C., only the material on record has to be considered and the alibi or any material submitted by the defence would not be relevant at the stage of discharge U/S 245 Cr.P.C.
14. It is only after the evidence is led by the defence the stage would arrive for consideration of the aforesaid material by the trial court and accordingly considering the entire facts of the case, this Court finds that there was clear implication of the appellants as per the material on record and consequently none consideration of the grounds of defence raised by the appellants at this stage would not render the impugned order illegal and arbitrary.
15. Supplementary affidavit filed today is taken on record.
16. In view of the aforesaid reason, this Court does nt find any ground, the appeal is bereft of merits and is accordingly dismissed.
(Alok Mathur, J.)
Order Date :- 8.5.2025/Ravi/
