Court No. - 4
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 25382 of 2018 Petitioner :- Kamlesh @ Preeti And 02 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 02 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rajesh Kumar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Bala Krishna Narayana,J. Hon'ble Ravindra Nath Kakkar,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and Smt. Manju Thakur, learned A.G.A. for the State.
Following order was passed by this Court on 13.09.2018 :-
"It has been submitted by learned counsel for the petitioners that there being no recital in the impugned F. I. R. that the petitioners, who are sisters-in-law (dewrani and jethani) and mother-in-law (sas) of the deceased, had abetted the deceased to commit suicide, offence under Section-306 IPC is not made out against the petitioners and the impugned F. I. R. is liable to be quashed.
Per contra, Smt. Manju Thakur, learned A. G. A.-I has submitted that the allegations made in the impugned F. I. R. clearly make out the case under Section 302 IPC against the petitioners and the other accused, but strangely during investigation, although the F. I. R. was initially lodged under Section 302 IPC, Investigating Officer converted the case from Section 302 IPC to one 306 IPC.
Upon perusal of the impugned F. I. R. submission made by Smt. Manju Thakur, learned A. G. A.-I appears to be correct.
Put up this case on Monday, i. e. 17.9.2018.
On that date, the Investigating Officer of the case shall appear before this Court along with case diary.
Till then, no coercive action shall be taken against the petitioners pursuant to the impugned F. I. R. registered as Case Crime No. 166 of 2018, under Section-306 IPC, P. S.-Kuber Asthan, district-Kushi Nagar.
Copy of the order shall be given to the learned A. G. A. for compliance and necessary action."
In compliance of the aforesaid order S.I. Rajesh Kumar Maurya, Investigating Officer of this case appeared before us and on being quizzed, he stated that it is true that initially the F.I.R. was lodged under Section 302 I.P.C. but after he interrogated the witnesses including two minor sons of the deceased, he came to the conclusion that the deceased had committed suicide on account of disharmony in her matrimonial home which emanated from the fact that her husband who was employed in a foreign country had directly deposited his salary in the deceased's account, on account of which her brother-in-law, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law very greatly annoyed and had started maltreating and torturing her. The explanation furnished by the Investigating Officer, upon perusal of the case diary at this stage appears to be satisfactory.
The submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioners is that offence under Section 306 I.P.C. is not made out against the petitioners on the basis of allegations made in the F.I.R. as the same does not contain any recital that the petitioners, who are sisters-in-law (devrani and jethani) and mother-in-law (sas) of the deceased, had abetted the deceased to commit the suicide, it cannot be said that petitioners have committed any cognizable offence. Moreover, 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 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.
However, it is made clear that this order will not preclude the Investigating Officer from converting the case in hand from one under Section 306 I.P.C. to 302 I.P.C. in case he is found some evidence during the course of the Investigation.
Order Date :- 17.9.2018/AKT