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Judgment
Jawad Rahim, J.—Petitioner is ranked as accused no. 1 in Crime No. 333/2003, which is now converted into S.C. No. 2/2001 facing charge for offence punishable u/s 489(b) and (c) read with 34 of IPC. He was arrested on 15.12.2009 and is in judicial custody. He was already serving sentence passed on him in S.C. No. 2/2001 for offence punishable u/s 302 of IPC.
He seeks quashing of the proceeding pending before the I Addl. District & Sessions Judge, Hubli, on the ground that there is no prima facie material to attract the offence punishable u/s 489(b) and (c) of the IPC.
It is not in dispute that the case is at the stage of framing of charge in S.C. No. 2/2001. If it is so, the right of the petitioner could be reserved to apply before the Trial Court (Sessions Court) to seek discharge in S.C. No. 51./2011. There is no ground made out to quash the proceedings, which has commenced and reached a logical end in filing the charge sheet.
Being of this view, I find no merit in the petition. The right of the petitioner to apply for discharge is reserved. All the contentions and any other contentions to be urged are left open.
Besides, I accede to the request of the learned counsel to direct the Trial Court to split the charge in case co-accused is not traceable. If the Trial Court is unable to secure the presence of co-accused, the learned Trial Judge may split up the charge against them and proceed to conduct the trial against the present petitioner for the said offence. With the above observation, the petition is dismissed.