Hari Krishna Budhia vs State Of Jharkhand

Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi, J

Heard Mr. Rajesh Kumar, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner and Mr. Vijay Kumar Sinha, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent State.

This petition has been filed for quashing of the order taking cognizance dated 08.06.2012 including entire criminal proceeding in connection with Ramgarh P.S.Case No.569 of 2007, G.R. No.4584 of 2007, pending in the court of learned Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh (now, Ramgarh).

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that at the relevant time, the cognizance has been taken by the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh, however, after creation of district of Ramgarh, this case has been transferred to the Judgeship of Ramgarh.

The complaint case has been filed alleging therein that out of self-statement of Sri Mahendra Singh Munda, Police Inspector-cum-Officer-in-Charge, Ramgarh Police Station, recorded on 14.12.2007 at 11.00 hrs near Bihar Foundry and Castings Ltd., Ramgarh, which inter alia states that on the self-same day he received a secret information from the reliable source that a truck bearing Reg.No.JH-09E-8034 was carrying illegal iron scraps for unloading to Bihar Foundry and Casting Ltd., Ramgarh and on this the police party reached near the Bihar Foundry and Casting Ltd., Ramgarh where the driver was trying to enter into the factory premises. The police intercepted the truck and asked the driver to produce documents but the driver did not produce any document relating to material which was being carried and on being quizzed, it was disclosed by the driver that the iron scraps were purchased from M/s Jai Tirupati Balajee Udyog, Durgapur and the same were being taken to Bihar Foundry and Castings Ltd., Ramgarh of which the petitioner is the Managing Director of the said company. It is further alleged that in absence of valid documents, the police seized the iron scraps and arrested the driver Mohammad Mannan.

Mr. Rajesh Kumar, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits that the petitioner is the Managing Director of the company namely Bihar Foundry and Castings Ltd., Ramgarh. He submits that the allegation is of that certain iron scraps were driven in a truck in question and the driver has not produced the documents and they tried to flee-away from the spot and it has been alleged that the said scrap was being transported by the truck to the factory premises of the petitioner and that was stolen property. He draws the attention of the Court to the Court’s order dated 21.01.2009 passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh who has been pleased to release the said scrap in favour of the owner who has filed the release petition. He submits that the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh has taken note of the fact that police has also verified that the paper/invoice was not found in any irregularity in the same and the original papers of the scraps was also produced before the learned court and that is why the said article was released in favour of the owner of the same.

6 Mr. Sinha, the learned counsel for the respondent State submits that the learned court has already taken cognizance in view of the FIR and in that view of the matter, this Court may not quash the entire criminal proceeding at this stage.

In view of the above submission of the learned counsel for the parties, the Court has gone through the contents of the FIR as well as the order taking cognizance and finds that in the FIR it has been alleged that the iron scraps were driven in the truck in question and the information was there that the same was being supplied to the factory premises of the petitioner and it is also alleged that the driver and khalasi tried to fled-away from the spot. Looking into the order by which the said scraps have been released by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, it is crystal clear that the said scrap was well documented and nothing was found illegal and that is why the same was released in favour of the owner of the same. Thus, in view of this, it cannot be said that the petitioner was involved in any illegal transaction of the scraps and to continue the proceeding will amount to abuse of the process of law.

In view of the above facts, reasons and analysis, the order taking cognizance dated 08.06.2012 including entire criminal proceeding in connection with Ramgarh P.S.Case No.569 of 2007, G.R. No.4584 of 2007, pending in the court of learned Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Hazaribagh (now, Ramgarh) is quashed.

Cr.M.P. No.1163 of 2014 is allowed and disposed of.

Pending petition if any also stands disposed of.