Court No. - 80
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 9858 of 2021 Applicant :- Prem Pal Singh Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- T. Islam,Syed Safdar Ali Kazmi Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Rajiv Gupta,J.
Heard learned counsel for the applicant, learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the material available on record.
This application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed with a prayer to quash the summoning order dated 12.04.2021 as well as entire proceedings of Complaint Case No. 16 of 2021, (Smt. Somdevi Vs. Indra Pal and others), under Section 354 I.P.C. and Section 3(i)(x), 3(i)2(ii) of SC/ST Act, Police Station Milak, District Rampur, pending in the court of Special Judge (SC/ST Act), Rampur.
An application under Section 156(3) CrPC was filed by the opposite party no.2 Somdevi in the court of Magistrate and the said application was treated as a complaint by the learned Magistrate, who directed for recording of the statements of the complainant and the witnesses under Sections 200 and 202 CrPC. Thereafter, the statement of the victim Somdevi was recorded under Section 200 CrPC, in which, she has clearly stated that on 09.02.2021 at about 6:30 PM, while she was going to her village, applicant reached there by Maruti car and tried to drag her in his car and on resistance, the applicant abused her with the name of her caste with an intention to humiliate and intimidate her in public view and thereafter, the applicant tried to outrage her modesty. The said factum has also been reiterated in the statements of witnesses Kanti and Virvati under Section 202 CrPC. On the basis of the said statements, learned Magistrate has summoned the applicant to face trial under Section 354 IPC and Sections 3(i)(x), 3(i)2(ii) of SC/ST Act.
Learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that when the application under Section 156(3) CrPC was moved before the Magistrate, he in turn, called for a report from the police and in the said report, it has been stated that victim is not known to the accused persons and as such, entire case against the applicant is false and cooked up, as such, entire proceedings based on complaint is liable to be quashed.
Per contra, learned AGA has submitted that the police report in the present case is wholly irrelevant. In fact, the police report on an application under Section 156(3) CrPC is called for only to ascertain, if any, FIR pursuant to said application has been lodged or not and nothing beyond that.
Learned AGA has next submitted that from the perusal of the allegation made in the complaint and the material collected during the course of enquiry, prima facie offence is clearly made out against the applicant and as such, impugned summoning order as well as entire criminal proceedings cannot be quashed.
From the perusal of the material on record and looking into the facts of the case, at this stage it cannot be said that no offence is made out against the applicant. All the submissions made at the bar relate to the disputed questions of fact, which cannot be adjudicated upon by this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C.
Having considered the rival submissions made by learned counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the material collected by the Magistrate during the course of enquiry in the form of statements of the victim and the witnesses under Sections 200 and 202 CrPC, prima facie offence is clearly made out against the applicant.
At this stage, disputed question of fact cannot be considered, therefore, in view 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 prayer for quashing the impugned summoning order as well as entire proceedings is refused.
This application under Section 482 CrPC is accordingly dismissed.
Order Date :- 12.8.2021 Nadim Digitally signed by RAJIV GUPTA Date: 2021.08.12 17:32:48 IST Reason: Document Owner Location: High Court of Judicature at Allahabad