SML FINANCE LTD Vs. CIRCLE INSPECTOR OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has come to this Court claiming issue of directions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and complaining of police harassment. According to the petitioner, he is a non banking financial institution. He runs his business in due compliance with all provisions of law. According to the petitioner, a person, referred to hereafter as the accused, had pledged certain gold ornaments with the petitioner to raise a loan. THE petitioner had bona fide entered into that transaction. He had received the pledged gold ornaments and had advanced amounts. According to the petitioner, he has not committed any offence and proceedings initiated against him are transparently vexatious. He is aggrieved by the attempt of the police to seize the gold from his possession. It is, in these circumstances, that directions are claimed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) THE learned Government Pleader on behalf of respondents 1 and 2 submits that the police are only bona fide investigating into a crime registered at the Perumpadappu police station. A person had pledged certain gold ornaments to another referred to as the defacto complainant. An employee of the defacto complainant, referred to as the accused, had clandestinely removed such pledged ornaments and had re- pledged the same before the petitioner. On the complaint of the defacto complainant, a crime has been registered as Crime No.62 of 2011 as Perumpadappu Police Station. That crime is being investigated. In the course of investigation, the investigating officer felt that the gold ornaments deserve to be seized. Steps are being taken in this direction. According to the learned Government Pleader, the petitioner has no right to seek interruption of the steps taken in the bona fide investigation of the said crime. THE proposed seizure of the gold ornaments with the petitioner can, by no stretch of imagination be said to amount to harassment. THE petitioner has his rights under law to claim return of the articles seized under Section 457/451 Cr.P.C. At any rate, no directions are liable to be issued to interrupt the investigation that is under way. In these circumstances this petition may be dismissed, submits the learned Government Pleader.