Court No. - 33
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 23151 of 2018 Petitioner :- Pranjal Shukla And 2 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rajesh Kumar Dubey Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.,Noori Ullah,Siddarth Jaiswal Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J. Hon'ble Vivek Varma,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners, learned AGA for the State respondents, Sri Siddarth Jaiswal, learned counsel for the respondent no. 4 and perused the record.
Instant writ petition seeks quashing of the FIR dated 28.7.2018, registered as Case Crime No. 0083 of 2018, at P.S. Mahila Thana, District Gautam Buddh Nagar, under Sections 498-A, 323, 504, 506, 509 IPC and Section 3/4 of D.P. Act.
The FIR, which has been lodged by respondent no. 4, states that the petitioner no.1 (Pranjal Shukla) was married to informant's daughter; that in connection with the marriage Rs. 55 Lacs was spent yet a demand for further dowry was raised by the accused persons claiming that Pranjal Shukla (petitioner no. 1) is an I.I.T. qualified boy, therefore, dowry would have to be paid. It has been alleged that on account of demand, an additional sum of Rs. 15-20 Lacs had to be provided in kind as well as cash. It is also alleged in the FIR that Pranjal Shukla is a liquor addict and after consuming liquor he indulges in viewing porn films and insists informant's daughter to have unnatural sex. With aforesaid allegations as also by levelling general allegations that the informant's daughter had been harassed and an attempt was also made to strangulate her, the impugned FIR was lodged.
It is also stated in the FIR that after staying about 8-9 months at Noida, informant's daughter went to Singapore. It is stated that there also a scene was created by the petitioner no. 1 (Husband of informant's daughter).
To explore possibility of a settlement, the matter was referred to Mediation Centre of this Court vide order dated 24.8.2018. The Mediation Centre submitted a report, dated 26.10.2018, that parties are not willing for mediation. While referring the matter to the Mediation Centre, this Court had granted interim protection to the petitioners.
As mediation has failed in arriving at a settlement between the parties, we have proceeded to examine the matter on merits.
From bare perusal of the FIR, it cannot be said that it does not disclose commission of the cognizable offences and, therefore, the prayer to quash the FIR is not acceptable and is, accordingly, rejected. However, keeping in mind that mere registration of the FIR does not mean that the accused would have to be arrested, as also that the matter emanated from matrimonial dispute and there is no material brought on record to show that the informant's daughter had suffered any visible injury of any kind, we deem it appropriate to dispose off this writ petition by providing that the investigation shall continue and shall be brought to its logical end but subject to co- operation of petitioners in the investigation, they shall not be arrested till submission of police report under Section 173(2) Cr.P.C.
Order Date :- 30.1.2019 RavindraKSingh