Court No. - 33
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 1232 of 2019 Petitioner :- Sanjay Jain Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Som Veer Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J. Hon'ble Vivek Varma,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner; learned AGA for respondents 1, 2 and 3; and perused the record.
The instant petition seeks quashing of the First Information Report dated 27.08.2018 registered as Case Crime No.941 of 2018, under Section 420 IPC and Section 3/7 of Essential Commodities Act at police station New Agra, District Agra.
The petitioner is a fair price shop dealer and has been made an accused of offence punishable under Section 420 IPC and Section 3/7 of Essential Commodities Act.
The allegation in the First Information Report is that by utilizing Adhaar Card multiple transactions were made through activation machine placed at his fair price shop for the purpose of release of scheduled commodities to different card holders. Further allegation is that Adhaar Card is to be utilized as authentication document by which the release of scheduled commodity is authenticated and therefore each Adhaar Card must relate to separate Ration Card. It is alleged that when data was collected multiple transactions on unique ID against different units was found from the shop of various fair price shop dealers including the petitioner but when a team was sent for enquiry the petitioner absented and did not co-operate in the enquiry.
According to the learned AGA, Adhaar Card is unique to each Ration Card holder/Unit and distribution is activated through it. If a common Adhaar is used for multiple units/cards, it can be assumed that distribution has been made to fictitious persons thereby suggesting that the Scheduled commodity has been black marketed.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that in similar matters, though in different set of accused and case crime numbers, various interim orders have been granted by this court and such release of scheduled commodities cannot be made without collusion of the other authorities who are involved in authentication of the transactions.
Be that as it may, since the petitioner is a fair price shop dealer and the commodities have been released at his end and authentication has been through a machine at his end, prima facie, the petitioner would be the first person to come to know of multiple transactions being made on a unique identity. Hence, the involvement of the dealer, at this stage, cannot be ruled out.
Under the circumstances, we decline to quash the First Information Report as against the petitioner and refrain from interfering with the investigation.
The petition is accordingly dismissed.
Order Date :- 22.1.2019 AKShukla/-