Furkan vs State of Uttarkahand and another

Hon''ble Servesh Kumar Gupta, J.—By means of this petition, a prayer has been made to quash the proceedings of criminal complaint case no. 985 of 2007, Mohd. Jakir Vs. Furkan, and also the order of cognizance dated 11.5.2007 passed by II Special Judicial Magistrate, Haridwar. Vide the said order, the Magistrate has directed the petitioner to stand trial for the offence of Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 IPC, pertaining to P.S. Jwalapur, District Haridwar. The said order was passed by learned Magistrate on the complaint filed by opposite party no.2-Mohd. Jakir on 11.11.2005.

Sri Mohd. Jakir has averred several allegations against the petitioner regarding innumerable irregularities in proper distribution of wheat, sugar, kerosene oil and other ration items provided by the Government to the villagers, including the complainant. It is stated that the petitioner is having a licence of a fair price shop in the village. Complaints made to the administrative authorities could not yield any result. Once the licence of petitioner was also suspended on 29.10.2005, but the same was set aside by the Commissioner, Pauri Garhwal on 20.2.2008. Fed up from running to various administrative authorities in vain, Mohd. Jakir filed the impugned complaint. He got his statement recorded u/s 200 Cr.P.C. whereas, the statement of his three witnesses, namely, Mohd. Yakub, Sanuallah and Jabbar were recorded u/s 202 Cr.P.C. Having gone through the contents of the complainant and that of his witnesses, learned Magistrate passed the impugned order of cognizance, as aforementioned. The allegations, inter alia, entailed making of forged and fabricated entries, not only in the ration cards supplied by the Government, but also in the prescribed register, meant for making the proper entries regarding distribution of ration to the persons entitled.

This Court, having heard learned counsel for the parties, is not inclined to interfere with the order of cognizance. The contention put forth by learned counsel for the applicant that once, the suspended licence has been restored by the order of Commissioner, Garhwal, is of no avail in view of the findings of fact arrived at by the trial court. So, this way, this petition is merit-less and liable to be dismissed. It is, accordingly, dismissed. Needless to mention that the interim order dated 11.10.2007 has already been vacated by the Court. Information be sent to the court below to proceed with the trial accordingly.