Sri Sachindanand Mathapati vs The State & Anr.

Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner/ accused, the learned High Court Government Pleader (for short ‘HCGP’) for the respondent No.1/ State and the learned counsel for the respondent No.2 on the petition. Perused the relevant materials on record.

This petition is filed by the petitioner under Section 528 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short ‘BNSS’), praying for an order to quash the proceedings of the case in Crime No.153/2025 of the respondent No.1 Police for the offences punishable under Sections 336(2), 336(3), 340(1), 340(2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (for short ‘BNS’) registered against the petitioner.

The learned HCGP has filed report of the Investigating Officer along with copies of some documents regarding the investigation already done in the case till this day and orally objected to the petition submitting that the investigation is under process and at this stage any of the contentions of the petitioner does not merit consideration. Further, the contentions of the petitioner are matters of investigation and only in the investigation it should be ascertained whether or not there are any materials against the petitioner for the alleged offence. Therefore, the petition does not stand for consideration and consequently, the learned HCGP has sought for dismissal of the petition.

The learned counsel for the respondent No.2 has orally objected to the petition submitting that any of the contentions of the petitioner put forth in the petition cannot be considered at this stage as the investigation is in the process and it is yet to be completed. Therefore, the learned counsel for the respondent No.2 has also sought for dismissal of the petition.

The submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the concerned project is already completed and the petitioner being Engineer of the Nirmith Kendra, Bidar, handed over the certificate on 18.02.2025 and thereafter, it was signed by the concerned PDO as taken over the same.

The learned counsel for the petitioner has also produced copy of the letter dated 27.02.2025 issued by the Head Of Department, Civil Engineering, of the concerned Engineering College issued to the Project Manager, Nirmithi Kendra, Bidar. The submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that after taking signature and handing over the certificate, the petitioner had no role to play in the concerned document and therefore, he is innocent of the offences alleged against him.

However, it is pertinent to note that the offences alleged in the case is forgery of documents and also cheating by using such forged documents. Therefore, the question as to who forged the signatures of the concerned Chairman of the Nirmithi Kendra/ the Deputy Commissioner of Bidar in Handing over certificate and thereafter, who used the said certificate in the case is the matter to be investigated by the respondent No.1 Police. Now the case is in the process of investigation. Therefore, at this stage any of the contentions put forth by the petitioner does not merit consideration. Hence, the question of quashing the proceedings of case as sought for in the application does not arise. However, the petitioner is at liberty to put forth his contentions and also to produce the documents before the respondent No.1 Police in the investigation and the respondent No.1 Police shall consider those documents during the investigation earlier to filing of the final report in the case as per the procedure under law.

With these observations, the present petition does not merit consideration and the same is liable to be dismissed.

In the result, I proceed to pass the following: