Court No. - 33
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 9725 of 2019 Petitioner :- Smt. Brijesh Kumari And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rajeev Kumar Upadhyay Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J. Hon'ble Suresh Kumar Gupta,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners; learned A.G.A. for the respondents 1, 2 and 3; and perused the record.
The instant petition seeks quashing of the first information report dated 11.12.2013 registered as Case Crime No.812 of 2013, under Sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC, P.S.
Sikandrarao, District Hathras.
The impugned first information report has been lodged against as many as five persons including the petitioners. The allegation in the impugned first information report, which has been lodged by the District Minority Welfare Officer, Hathras, is that, unauthorizedly, a sum of Rs.1,52,45,000/-, without permission of the District Magistrate, was transferred to the account of Raj Pal Singh Inter College and, subsequently, defalcated. It is alleged in the first information report that the account of the said college was being jointly operated by the Principal of the College, namely, Ashish Pundir son of Dharamvir Pundir; and Assistant Teacher, Adarsh Pundir son of Dharamvir Singh. It is alleged that for such operation a resolution was submitted by Dharamvir Singh, Manager/Secretary; and Brijesh Kumari, Chairperson of Sri Raj Pal Singh Inter College.
Dharamvir Singh is the petitioner no.2 and Brijesh Kumari is the petitioner no.1, who are parents of Ashish Pundir and Adarsh Pundir, who operated the said account.
The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners is that if the petitioners' sons had played fraud or have defalcated the funds, the petitioners cannot be made liable because there is no vicarious liability in criminal law unless specifically provided by the statute.
As the matter was of the year 2013, we had required learned A.G.A. to obtain instructions whether the investigation was still pending.
Learned A.G.A. has informed the Court that the investigation is still pending.
Learned A.G.A. has further submitted that since the allegations are that joint operation in the account of the institution was authorized by a resolution of the committee whose Manager was the petitioner no.2 and Chairman, the petitioner no.1, it cannot be said that the petitioners have no role in the fraud more so, when the persons operating the account were the own sons of the petitioners.
Having considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the parties, we do not find it to be a fit case where the impugned first information report could be quashed. More so, because the allegations made in the impugned first information report disclose commission of cognizable offence and the petitioners are not complete strangers to the institution where fraud has taken place. The petition is dismissed with liberty to the petitioners to apply for bail.
Order Date :- 29.4.2019 AKShukla/-