RAJU KRISHNA SHEDBALKAR Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The appellant before this Court has challenged the order dtd. 12/7/2021 by which his 482 petition before the High Court was only partly allowed in as much as though the High Court has quashed the proceedings regarding offences under Ss. 406/420/417 of Indian Penal Code as far as they relate to the co-accused, and also against the appellant so far as it relates to offences under Ss. 406 & 420, but the criminal proceedings against the appellant have not been quashed under Sec. 417. Thus, still aggrieved he has come before this Court.

(3.) The facts of this case are that the informant Ms. Sushmita present respondent no.2 had lodged her FIR at Malamaruti Police Station, Karnataka under Ss. 406/420/417 read with Sec. 34 IPC against 6 persons including the present appellant. It was stated in the FIR that the informant is M.Tech. graduate and was working as a lecturer. Her elders were searching a suitable bridegroom for her which they found in the present appellant. The appellant and the informant were thereafter talking to each other on phone and her father had also given Rs.75,000.00 in advance for the marriage hall, but this marriage never took place as she learnt from a newspaper report that the appellant has in fact married someone else! She then lodges an FIR against 6 persons under Ss. 406/420/417 read with Sec. 34 of IPC. The FIR, primarily related to offence of cheating and criminal breach of trust. The accused persons are the present appellant (i.e. the prospective bridegroom according to the informant) his mother, sisters and brothers. All the accused had filed a petition under Sec. 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code for quashing the proceedings as no case under Ss. 406/407/420 read with Sec. 34 IPC was made out against any of them and they would argue that the proceedings initiated by the accused was nothing but an abuse of the process of law. The learned Single Judge of the High Court came to the conclusion that no offences under Sec. 406 or under Sec. 420 is made out against any of the accused persons. The reasoning given by the High Court are as under :-