Court No. - 51
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 36345 of 2018 Petitioner :- Deepak Chauhan Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Gaurav Kakkar Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.,Shiv Kumar Singh Rajawat
Hon'ble Vipin Sinha,J. Hon'ble Ghandikota Sri Devi,J.
Supplementary affidavit filed today is taken on record.
Shiv Kumar Singh has put in appearance on behalf of respondent no. 3 and files supplementary affidavit, by means of which the statement of the girl under Section 164 Cr.P.C. has been recorded.
Heard Sri Gaurav Kakkar, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Shiv Kumar Singh appearing for the respondent no. 3, Sri R.K. Maurya learned AGA appearing for the State.
This writ petition has been filed with the prayer to issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the impugned F. I. R. which has been registered as Case Crime No. 747 of 2018, under Sections- 376, 504, 506 IPC, P.S.- Kotwali, district-Jhansi.
Sri Gaurav Kakkar appearing for the petitioner submits that petitioner is a press reporter and he had a friend by the name Sunil Mishra, who unfortunately died leaving behind his widow Anita Mishra and that Anita Mishra was unfortunately involved in an incident in which an FIR was lodged against the husband of respondent no. 3, under Section 420, 406 and 376, Case Crime No. 570 of 2016. That in the said case the husband of Priti Sharma that is Pankaj Sharma had filed a discharge application and the discharge application was rejected by the court concerned on 18.08.2018. The contention is that immediately after the discharge application was rejected on 18.08.2018, the first informant, Priti Sharma who happens to be wife Pankaj Sharma, the accused in the said case, had filed an application under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. on 10.09.2018, on the basis of which the present FIR has been registered. It has further been contended that alleged incident is of 17.08.2018 and it is beyond comprehension as to why the person waits for so many days for moving an application under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. It has been further contended that even the application which was given to the SSP concerned was given after 13 days of the incident on 30.08.2018. The contention is that petitioner as he is press reporter and doing his pairvi in the case lodged by Anita Mishra, the wife of friend of Sunil Mishra, who was expired, This case has been built up by the wife of the accused in the said case Pankaj Sharma. Counsel for the respondent has strongly opposed the writ petition and has vehemently contested the contention that the statement of the girl under Section 164 Cr.P.C. has been recorded.
Supplementary affidavit has been filed today and duly perused by the Court, in which she takes consistence as taken in the First Information Report. However, keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case and the background of the case it cannot be said that the clear cut case has been made against the petitioner. The counsel for the petitioner submits that matter requires deeper and fair investigation before any arrest can be effected.
Per contra, learned A.G.A. has submitted that from the perusal of the allegations made in the impugned F. I. R., it cannot be said that no cognizable offence is made out, hence the impugned F.I.R. is not liable to be quashed.
Having heard the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the parties and perusal of the impugned first information as well as the other material brought on record, we are not inclined to quash the impugned F.I.R.
However, considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the parties, we dispose of this writ petition with the direction that the petitioner shall not be arrested in the aforementioned case till submission of police report under Section 173(2) Cr.P.C. However, petitioner shall participate and co-operate with the investigation and police authorities shall conclude the investigation within three months from the date of production of certified copy of the order.
With the aforesaid observations, the instant writ petition is finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 19.12.2018 V.S.Singh