MOHAMMAD WAJID & ANR.  [APPELLANT(S)] Vs. STATE OF U.P. & ORS.  [RESPONDENT(S)]

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 2340 OF 2023

(2JB, B.R. GAVAI and J.B. PARDIWALA JJ., delivered by J.B. PARDIWALA, J.)

Facts: The present appeal is at the instance of the original accused Nos. 1 and 2 of the First Information Report (FIR) being the Crime Registration No. 224 of 2022 dated 19.09.2022 registered with the Mirzapur Police Station, District Saharanpur, State of U.P. for the offences punishable under Sections 395, 504, 506 and 323 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and is directed against the order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad dated 17.10.2022 in the Criminal Miscellaneous Writ Petition No. 15174 of 2022 by which the High Court rejected the Writ Petition filed by appellants herein thereby declining to quash the aforesaid FIR.

Issue: Whether the F.I.R. against the appellants deserves to be quashed?

Arguments on behalf of counsel for appellants: Mr. Siddhartha Dave

It is respectfully submitted that the alleged First Information Report is absolutely false and frivolous, and on a reading of the said FIR, the offence of dacoity is clearly not made out against the Petitioners. The allegations in the First Information Report are not only vague but also highly improbable given that except for the bald allegation that the incident occurred in the year 2021, there is no mention of the date and time of incident in the FIR. It is submitted that after the change of Government in the State of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2017, the ruling party came to power and immediately after the change of the Government the Petitioners along with their family members were falsely implicated in more than 30 criminal cases at the behest of the ruling party to settle political scores and seek vengeance. It is submitted that the alleged Look Out Notice dated 10.05.2022 was issued much prior to the registration of the present FIR No. 224 of 2022 which was registered on 19.09.2022 and as such is inconsequential. The allegations made in the First Information Report do not prima facie constitute any offence or make out a case under Sections 395, 504, 506 and 323 IPC against the Petitioner and thus, the FIR is liable to be quashed. It is pertinent to mention that even after the charge sheet has been filed, the petition for quashing of a FIR is well within the powers of a Court of law, as per Anand Kumar Mohatta and another VS. State (NCT of Delhi), Department of Home & Another (2019).

Arguments on behalf of counsel for respondents: Ms. Garima Prasad

It is submitted that the instant SLPs have been filed by a third party and the Accused Iqbal @ Haji Iqbal @ Bala nor the other petitioners have signed the vakalatnama and affidavit and Iqbal is absconding from the law. Even, the Writ Petition under section 482 Cr.P.C. filed before the Hon’ble High Court, has not been signed by Iqbal himself, who is the Most Wanted Criminal in the area of Mirjapur District Saharanpur creating terror in the minds of the citizens. He is a known sand mafia, land grabber having grabbed Government Land, Forest Land, Poor Farmers’ Land and built a university namely Glocal University, Saharanpur in the area of more than 700 Acres. The Petitioners and other accused robbed the Complainant and his brother and got the signature on stamp papers of the aforementioned land forcefully. Further, it was alleged in that due to terror of the Petitioners and their family, no other family members have supported to lodge the complaint, but after seeing that the other aggrieved persons are taking action against the Petitioners and their family members, the complainant decided to lodge the complaint against the Petitioners and other accused persons for the said criminal incident. The Investigation Officer also recorded the statement of the independent witnesses and collected the other material evidence against the Petitioners and other accused persons, which prima facie shows that the Petitioners ad other accused persons have committed the serious offences.

Held: The court allowed the present appeal and set aside the judgment of the high court, while quashing the F.I.R. against the petitioners. It was held that, “in the overall view of the matter, we are convinced that the continuation of the criminal case arising from the FIR No. 224 of 2022 registered at Mirzapur Police Station, Saharanpur will be nothing but abuse of the process of the law. In the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, we are inclined to accept the case put up on behalf of the appellants herein.”

The court observed that, “when it comes to quashing of the FIR or criminal proceedings, the criminal antecedents of the accused cannot be the sole consideration to decline to quash the criminal proceedings. An accused has a legitimate right to say before the Court that howsoever bad his antecedents may be, still if the FIR fails to disclose commission of any offence or his case falls within one of the parameters as laid down by this Court in the case of Bhajan Lal, then the Court should not decline to quash the criminal case only on the ground that the accused is a history sheeter.”