Court No. - 4
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 23506 of 2018 Petitioner :- Ashok Pandey And 3 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Pradeep Kumar Bhardwaj Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Bala Krishna Narayana,J. Hon'ble Ravindra Nath Kakkar,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned A.G.A. for the State.
This writ petition has been filed by the petitioners to issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents not to arrest the petitioners and with further prayer for quashing the impugned FIR dated 02.07.2018 registered as case crime no. 69 of 2018, under Sections 498A, 504, 506, 406, 313, 420, I.P.C & 3 /4 D.P. Act and Section 66 Information of Technology Act, 2008, P.S. Mahila Thana, District -Gautambudh Nagar.
It is submitted by learned counsel for the petitioners that impugned F.I.R. has been lodged by the respondent no. 3 Prerna Sharma roping in the entire family of her husband Rajesh Sharma including his father, mother, married sister and brother-in-law containing absolutely false, concocted, vague and sweeping allegations against the entire family of her husband that they were demanding additional dowry from her and her parents and on account of non fulfilment of the aforesaid demand of dowry, she was maltreated and tortured by them in her matrimonial home. It is further submitted that as regards commission of offence under Section 313 I.P.C. there is no evidence on record even prima facie indicating that petitioners had committed the said offence. The impugned F.I.R. is second F.I.R., the respondent no. 3 had earlier lodged another F.I.R. which has registered as Case Crime No. 518 of 2015, under Sections 376, 313, 506 I.P.C. which was challenged by the petitioners in this Court by filing a Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 29903 of 2015 in which a compromise was filed by the parties and the aforesaid writ petition was disposed of by this Court directing that the Investigating Officer shall file its report under Section 173 (2) Cr.P.C. after considering the compromise. Thereafter final report was submitted. He further submitted that apart from the bald allegations made in the impugned F.I.R., no credible evidence whatsoever is forthcoming even prima facie indicating at the petitioners' complicity and hence the impugned FIR qua petitioners is liable to be quashed.
Per contra learned A.G.A. submitted that from the perusal of the impugned FIR and on the basis of the allegation made therein, it cannot be said that no cognizable offence is disclosed against the petitioners. As far as the question of lack of evidence in support of the allegation made in the impugned FIR is concerned the same shall be collected during investigation and the impugned FIR is not liable to be quashed on the basis of the submissions advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioners.
After having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the impugned FIR, we are not inclined to quash the same.
However, considering the peculiar facts and circumstances, we direct that investigation of the aforesaid case shall go on but the petitioners shall not be arrested till the submission of police report under section 173(2) Cr.P.C. subject to their extending full co-operation during investigation.
With the aforesaid direction, this petition is finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 28.8.2018 AKT