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Judgment
Date : 06-08-2026 Heard learned senior counsel for the petitioner and learned APP for the State. Although, notices have been validly served, none appears on behalf of the opposite party no.2.
The present application has been field for quashing the FIR bearing Mansi P.S. Case No.219 of 2022 dated 28.06.2022 registered under Sections 420 and 166A of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as ‘IPC’) and Section 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The short facts of the case, as disclosed in the First Information Report, is that the informant Masomat Laxmi Devi has made allegation that she received a phone call from Mobile No.9661206044 and the caller told her that he was speaking from Mansi Police Station and informed that there was a case lodged against her and he was ready to help her, but he dissuaded her from coming to the police station and rather was asking her to come to his house allegedly with some bad intention. The accused in the present case has not been made by name, but as the bearer of Mobile No.96612060494
Learned senior counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner is a police officer and also the investigating officer of Mansi P.S. Case No.168 of 2022, Annexure-5 to the supplementary affidavit, wherein the present informant was an accused. It has been submitted that the First Information Report is totally vague with no details about the conversation between the informant and the petitioner and the material so far collected during the course of investigation also failed to disclose any offence against the petitioner much less under Section 420 and 166A of the IPC and Section 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. It has been submitted that the petitioner has actually been framed in the present case in collusion with some other police officer against, whom he had made a complaint and malafidely the present informant was taken into collusion to lodge the present case against the petitioner. Learned Senior counsel has made reference to the case of State of Haryana and Ors. v. Ch. Bhajan Lal and Ors., reported in AIR 1992 SC 604, to contend that from a bare reading of the contents of the First Information Report, no criminal offence is made out against the petitioner and the same also does not get any strength or support from the materials collected during the investigation. As such, the present FIR is fit to be quashed as against the petitioner.
Learned APP for the State opposed the present application on the ground that the case should not be quashed at the threshold and in case the investigation is going on and some facts may transpire therein, it would not be justified to scuttle the investigation by quashing the FIR itself.
After having heard the rival contentions made on behalf of the parties as also after having gone through the First Information Report and the other materials present on record, including the case diary of the present case, it appears to this Court that the allegations are totally vague in nature and a reference has been made only to a telephone number stating that there were some calls to the informant from the said phone number. It is also a fact that the petitioner happened to the investigating officer of the case in which the present informant was an accused, as such, a possibility of the present case being a result of some malafide intention can also not be ruled out.
This Court also finds from the records of the case that despite notices having been issued to the opposite party no.2 as also being received by her, she has chosen not to appear in the present proceedings, which also highlights the suspicious conduct of the informant/opposite party no.2.
Having gone through the narration of facts as made in the First Information Report, there apparently does not appear any ingredients of the offences as alleged, rather the narration, in fact, does not disclose the commission of any offence and the FIR has been lodged merely on account of some very vague, unclear and hazy allegations, which also do not get any support from materials collected during investigation. As such, the FIR also suffers from the vice of vagueness and allowing any prosecution to continue on the basis of the present FIR would only amount to an abuse of the process of the Court.
This Court is also conscious of the fact that the First Information Report is of the year 2022 and till date the investigation has not concluded. Moreover, the allegations, on the face of the record, do not prima facie constitute any offence or make out a case against the accused, nor the allegations appear to be supported by other materials, as such, the present case squarely falls within the ambit of the categories laid down in the case of Bhajan Lal (supra).
In such view of the matter, the First Information Report bearing Mansi P.S. Case No.219 of 2022 dated 28.06.2022 and any prosecution arising therefrom, is hereby quashed.
Accordingly, the present application stands allowed.