July 13, 2019:
Madras High Court has directed the police to close the case of forgery filed by an accused of cheque bounce case and allowed him to file a private complaint.
A bench of Justice Venkatesh has passed the order in the case titled as Arun vs Boopalan on 01.07.2019.
Accused-petitioner is facing criminal prosecution initiated by the respondent under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The defence of the petitioner is that the cheques were stolen and it was filled up and its being misused against the petitioner. The petitioner has also given a complaint in this regard to the respondent police and an FIR was registered in Crime No.45 of 2019 and investigation is still pending.
The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner apart from taking the defence that the cheques have been stolen and it was filled up and used against the petitioner, also wants to prosecute the respondent for the offence under Sections 380, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC. Without a final report being filed in the FIR registered before the respondent police, the petitioner will not be able to defend himself effectively in STC No.185 of 2019.
High Court observed "In a case of this nature, the law is well settled to the effect that the accused person apart from raising the defence is also permitted to parallely prosecute the complainant for the alleged offence".
High Court also observed "The respondent police will not be able to effectively investigate this case since now the original cheques are before the Court below and therefore it will take a lot of time for the respondent police to collect these cheques and to get expert opinion. It will be more appropriate, if the petitioner is permitted to file a private complaint before the same Court with the same set of allegations, so that the same Court can try both the cases. This will effectively avoid multiplicity of the proceedings and the same Court can effectively deal with the issue as between the same parties".
High Court directed "The respondent police in Crl.O.P.17016 of 2019 is directed to close the FIR in Crime No.45 of 2019. The petitioner is given liberty to file a private complaint before the Judicial Magistrate Court and the same shall be taken cognizance and tried along with STC No.185 of 2019".
Read the Order here:
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