Court No. - 71
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 6052 of 2019 Appellant :- Lautu And 5 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Appellant :- Swapnil Srivastava Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Rajiv Gupta,J.
Heard learned counsel for the appellants, learned AGA for the State and perused the record.
This criminal appeal has been filed by the appellants with the prayer to quash the summoning order dated 29.08.2019 and entire proceedings of Complaint Case No.69 of 2019 (Surekha Vs. Lautu and others), under Sections 149, 323, 504, 506, 427, 452 IPC and Section 3(1)(Dha) of SC/ST Act, Police Station Sonha, District Basti.
As per the allegations made in the complaint, it is alleged that on 12.05.2016 at 7:00 AM, the appellants tried to take forcible possession of the land belonging to the victim and when she asked them to refrain from doing their illegal act, the appellants abused her with the name of her caste with an intention to humiliate and intimidate her and the appellants, armed with lathi, danda and phawra, chased her with an intention to kill her and when she entered in her house, then the appellants followed her and assaulted her by kicks and fists and when her daughter came to her rescue, she was also assaulted by lathi danda. On account of assault made by the appellants, victim Laxmi suffered injuries on her person and has been medically examined.
Learned counsel for the appellants has submitted that from the perusal of the allegations made in the complaint and the material collected during the course of inquiry, no offence is disclosed against the appellants and the present prosecution has been instituted with a malafide intention for the purposes of harassment. He has pointed out certain documents and statements in support of his contention.
Per contra, learned AGA has submitted that from the perusal of the allegations made in the complaint and the material collected during the course of inquiry, prima facie offence is clearly made out against the appellants and as such, impugned summoning order cannot be quashed.
Moreover, at this stage, only prima facie case is to be seen in the light of the law laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the cases of R.P. Kapur Vs. State of Punjab, AIR 1960 SC 866, State of Haryana Vs. Bhajan Lal, 1992 SCC (Cri.) 426, State of Bihar Vs. P.P. Sharma, 1992 SCC (Cri.) 192 and lastly Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. Vs. Mohd. Saraful Haq and another, (Para- 10) 2005 SCC (Cri.) 283. The disputed defence of the accused cannot be considered at this stage.
The prayer for quashing the summoning order and entire criminal proceedings is therefore refused.
However, it is directed that if the appellants appear/surrender before the court below and apply for bail, their prayer for bail shall be considered and decided as expeditiously as possible after giving opportunity of hearing to both the parties.
With the aforesaid observations, this criminal appeal is finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 27.9.2019 Nadim