Court No. - 64
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 32277 of 2019
Applicant :- Yashwant Singh
Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Applicant :- Pravin Kumar Mishra Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Karuna Nand Bajpayee,J.
This application u/s 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed seeking the quashing of charge sheet dated 23.6.2018 submitted in Case Crime No. 525 of 2018, under Sections 147, 323, 353, 506 I.P.C. P.S.- Lanka, District- Varanasi as well as the entire proceedings of Criminal Case No. 209 of 2019, arising out of Case Crime No. 525 of 2018, under Sections 147, 323, 353, 506 I.P.C., pending in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, Court No. 1, Varanasi.
Heard applicant's counsel and learned AGA. Entire record has been perused.
Submission of learned counsel for the applicant is that the applicant is not named in the F.I.R. Even the F.I.R. itself is highly belated and there is no plausible explanation tendered by the prosecution for the same. Further submission is that the applicant has been falsely implicated only because he shares faculty with other co-accused persons. Certain other contentions have also been raised by the applicant's counsel but all of them relate to disputed questions of fact. The court has also been called upon to adjudge the testimonial worth of prosecution evidence and evaluate the same on the basis of various intricacies of factual details which have been touched upon by the learned counsel. The veracity and credibility of material furnished on behalf of the prosecution has been questioned and false implication has been pleaded.
The law regarding sufficiency of material which may justify the summoning of accused and also the court's decision to proceed against him in a given case is well settled. The court has to eschew itself from embarking upon a roving enquiry into the last details of the case. It is also not advisable to adjudge whether the case shall ultimately end in conviction or not. Only a prima facie satisfaction of the court about the existence of sufficient ground to proceed in the matter is required.
Through a catena of decisions given by Hon'ble Apex Court this legal aspect has been expatiated upon at length and the law that has evolved over a period of several decades is too well settled. The cases of (1) Chandra Deo Singh Vs. Prokash Chandra Bose AIR 1963 SC 1430 , (2) Vadilal Panchal Vs. Dattatraya Dulaji Ghadigaonker AIR 1960 SC 1113 and (3) Smt. Nagawwa Vs. Veeranna Shivalingappa Konjalgi 1976 3 SCC 736 may be usefully referred to in this regard.
The Apex Court decisions given in the case of R.P. Kapur Vs. State of Punjab AIR 1960 SC 866 and in the case of State of Haryana Vs. Bhajan Lal 1992 SCC(Cr.) 426 have also recognized certain categories by way of illustration which may justify the quashing of a complaint or charge sheet. Some of them are akin to the illustrative examples given in the above referred case of Smt. Nagawwa Vs. Veeranna Shivalingappa Konjalgi 1976 3 SCC 736. The cases where the allegations made against the accused or the evidence collected by the Investigating Officer do not constitute any offence or where the allegations are absurd or extremely improbable impossible to believe or where prosecution is legally barred or where criminal proceeding is malicious and malafide instituted with ulterior motive of grudge and vengeance alone may be the fit cases for the High Court in which the criminal proceedings may be quashed. Hon'ble Apex Court in Bhajan Lal's case has recognized certain categories in which Section-482 of Cr.P.C. or Article-226 of the Constitution may be successfully invoked.
Illumined by the case law referred to herein above, this Court has adverted to the entire record of the case.
Perusal of the F.I.R. shows that it has been lodged by Assistant Security Officer, Sir Sundar Lal Hospital, Banaras Hindu University, Lanka, Varanasi on 28.5.2018. The allegation is that in the Gestrology department of the aforesaid hospital a lady patient died. Thereafter one of the students namely, Ashutosh Singh accompanying 15-20 other students had manhandled the first informant and was forcibly ousted from the lift at the 6th floor and in this incident he had sustained injuries on his stomach and hand. Further allegation is that the aforesaid named accused Ashutosh Singh and other students had taken the dead body on stretcher in the V.C. lodge and had shouted that they will kill the first informant. During investigation the statement of the first informant was recorded by the Investigating Officer on 30.5.2018 and while endorsing the allegations made in the F.I.R., the first informant had named the present applicant and some other co-accused persons who were accompanying Ashutosh Singh in the said crime. The Investigating Officer, on the basis of aforesaid evidence, has submitted charge sheet against the applicant among other co- accused persons for the offences punishable under Sections 147, 323, 353 and 506 IPC. Learned Magistrate after perusing the entire material on record has cognizance in the matter on 14.6.2019. The submissions made by the applicant's learned counsel call for adjudication on pure questions of fact which may be adequately adjudicated upon only by the trial court and while doing so even the submissions made on points of law can also be more appropriately gone into by the trial court in this case. This Court does not deem it proper, and therefore cannot be persuaded to have a pre-trial before the actual trial begins. A threadbare discussion of various facts and circumstances, as they emerge from the allegations made against the accused, is being purposely avoided by the Court for the reason, lest the same might cause any prejudice to either side during trial. But it shall suffice to observe that the perusal of the F.I.R. and the material collected by the Investigating Officer on the basis of which the charge sheet has been submitted makes out a prima facie case against the accused at this stage and there appear to be sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused. I do not find any justification to quash the charge sheet or the proceedings against the applicant arising out of them as the case does not fall in any of the categories recognized by the Apex Court which may justify their quashing.
The prayer for quashing the same is refused as I do not see any abuse of the court's process either.
The application therefore stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 22.8.2019 Naresh/CPP/-