GYANCHAND JAIN Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition has been preferred by the Petitioner invoking the provisions of Sec. 482 of CrPC, seeking for quashment of the charge-sheet filed in Crime No. 419 of 2014 registered at Police Station Khairagarh, District Rajnandgaon where the Petitioner is being prosecuted for the offence under Sec. 34 of the Chhattisgarh Excise Act.

(2.) The Petitioner assails the filing of the charge-sheet and initiation of the criminal prosecution on the ground that he has been falsely implicated in the criminal case at the instance of some local influential persons who were otherwise involved in the racket of illicit sale of liquor. According to the Petitioner, he is a whistle blower of the said area and is also a part time journalist and as a part of his profession he had highlighted certain antisocial activities that were prevailing in the locality of village Jaalbandha at Tahsil Khairagarh, District Rajnandgaon. According to him, he had published various such illegal activities in the newspaper against some of the persons of the locality who were involved in illegal sale of scrap as well as liquor and on account of which they had threatened him of being falsely implicated in some case or the other to teach him a lesson. According to him, much before the date of lodging of the FIR itself, he had issued letters to the Superintendent of Police at Durg intimating about the threat that he had received periodically from the antisocial elements of the locality of falsely implicating him in one of the excise matters. According to the Petitioner, he has been repeatedly making written complaints to the Superintendent of Police at Durg on various dates before lodging of the FIR as also subsequent to the lodging of the FIR, which itself is a sufficient strong piece of material to show that he has been falsely implicated in the said case only on account of the fact that he, as a journalist, had published certain news articles of the illegal activities that had transpired in the said locality.

(3.) Counsel for the Petitioner drew the attention of the Court to the orders passed by this Court while granting anticipatory bail to the Petitioner and refers to the observations made therein, wherein this Court had taken note of all these averments made by the Petitioner for the purpose of granting anticipatory bail to him. She also refers to certain newspaper articles that have been enclosed along with the petition, to show that the news articles have been published at the instance of the Petitioner and which has become the root cause for the lodging of the case against him, and thus she sought for the quashment of the entire criminal prosecution in Crime No. 419 of 2014 registered at Police Station Khairgarh, District Rajnandgaon.