Baljit Singh Gill and Others vs State of Punjab and Another

Jai Singh Sekhon, J.—The sole grouse of the petitioners in this petition u/s 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashment of First Information Report No. 86 dated 30-10-1989 registered at Police Station, Machhiwara District Ludhiana, for offence under Sections .406 or 498A, 506 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code is that even if the entire allegations in the F.I.R. are'' taken to be true, the petitioners had not committed any offence in the territorial Jurisdiction of Police Station, Machhiwara.

Paras 4 and 5 of the F.I.R., Annexure P/1 read as under :--

"(4) That on 13-9-1989 the applicant demanded the dowry articles from the accused Baljit Singh which was entrusted to him at the time of marriage as her istridhan of the applicant but the accused refused to give those dowry articles to the applicant and told the applicant that he had disposed of all those articles. The accused Baljit Singh also demanded Rs. 1,50,000 from the applicant and he asked the applicant to bring this amount from the widow mother as the accused Baljit Singh has returned from U.S.A. In the meantime the father of the accused Baljit Singh, namely Sh. Kartar Singh Gill, his mother Smt. Jaswant Kaur and his brother Surinder Singh Gill came there who also supported the stand of the accused Baljit Singh. They also compelled the applicant to bring Rs. 1,50,000/- from her mother. The mother of the accused Baljit Singh namely Jaswant Kaur also sapped the applicant on refusing to fulfil their illegal demand of Rs. 1,50,000/-. The accused persons locked the applicant in a room where the applicant was kept starved upto the morning of Rs. 15-9-1989.

(5) That on 15-9-89 the accused Baljit Singh along with other accused persons as mentioned above, left the applicant at village Urna P.S. Machhiwara Tehsil Samrala in three clothes in the presence of her widow mother Smt. Paramjit Kaur and Smt. Sukhwant Kaur sister of the applicant. The accused Baljit Singh demanded Rs. 1,50,000/- from her widow mother and the accused persons again supported the stand of accused Baljit Singh and he threatened the applicant if she will not fulfil their demand of Rs. 1,50,000 the accused will teach her a lesson and also threatened to kill the applicant by burning her as being done in these days with the tricks and the accused will leave for U.S.A. and never call the applicant there."

A bare glance through the facts contained in these paras leaves no doubt that the petitioners had supported the demand of accused Baljit Singh for paying Rs. 1,50,000 at village Urna, P.S. Machhiwara. Thus, at this stage, it cannot be said that the police of P.S. Machhiwara has no jurisdiction to investigate this case.

Any how, no interference in this case is called for u/s 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as the challan has been put in before Judicial Magistrate at Samrala which Court shall go into the matter of territorial jurisdiction while framing the charges.

Under these circumstances, no interference is called for in this petition. It is accordingly dismissed.