Court No. - 1
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 21951 of 2019 Applicant :- Vidya Sagar Pandey Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Applicant :- Ashok Kumar Giri,Arvind Prabodh Dubey Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J.
Heard Sri Arvind Prabodh Dubey, counsel for the applicant and learned A.G.A. for the State.
This application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed to quash the entire proceedings of Special Trial No. 21 of 2019 (State vs. Vidya Sagar Pandey), arising out of Case Crime No. 982 of 2009, under Sections- 409, 120B I.P.C. & 13(1)C, 13(1)D read with Section 3(2) Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998, Police Station- Sikari Ganj, District- Gorakhpur.
Learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that in an open inquiry conducted by the Vigilance the applicant was exonerated and as such no charge has been levelled against the applicant and on the basis of said inquiry, F.I.R. of the present case was lodged against two persons, namely, Prithvi Nath Tiwari and Ram Pyare and applicant was not named in the F.I.R. Thereafter, when the applicant came to know that he is wanted in the present case then, he challenged the said wanted report before this Court in Crl. Misc. Writ Petition No. 30352 of 2018 in which his arrested was stayed by this Court till the submission of police report under section 173 (2) Cr.P.C. vide order dated 26.10.2018 copy of which is annexed at page-71 of the present petition. Thereafter, the Investigating Officer without collecting any evidence submitted charge-sheet against the applicant. He has further been submitted that the applicant has now retired from service and at present is aged about 77 years, hence, he has filed the present 482 Cr.P.C. application praying for quashing of the charge sheet.
The learned A.G.A. on the other hand has opposed the prayer for quashing of the charge-sheet and submitted that merely the applicant has been exonerated during the course of open inquiry cannot be a ground to quash the impugned charge-sheet.
The contention of the learned counsel for the applicant is that the matter has been pending for the last ten years and the applicant has already been exonerated in departmental proceedings also cannot be accepted in view of the judgment of Hon'ble the Apex Court in the case of State of NCT Vs. Ajay Kumar Tyagi', reported in SCC 2012 (9), 685, in which it has been held that quashing of criminal prosecution, on the same charge, in which the accused has been exonerated in the departmental proceedings, itself is not a ground for quashing of the criminal proceeding.
The prayer for quashing the proceedings of the aforesaid case based on the charge-sheet is refused.
However, the applicant is directed to appear before the court below within a period of four weeks and apply for bail and which shall be decided to consider his bail application taking into account his old age and he has retired from his service and other circumstances which brought before it and decided the same in accordance with law expeditiously.
From the period of four weeks no coercive action shall be taken against the applicant with the said observations the application stands disposed of.
Order Date :- 31.5.2019 Rohit