SHANTILAL AMRATLAL SANKHLA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this application under Sec. 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the applicant is seeking anticipatory bail in connection with the FIR being C. R. No. 11195019220980 of 2022 registered with Deesa Rural police station, District: - Banaskantha for the offences punishable under Sec. 406 , 420 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) As per the FIR registered by one Dinaji Hiraji Jat, he has stated that he is an agriculturist and taking the crop of potatoes and for preserving those potatoes, he used to place it in the cold storage and used to pay the rent of cold storage as per the bags put in the cold storage. At the time, when the potatoes are put in the cold storage, the cold storage people used to give them a receipt and upon producing the original receipt, they would get back the stock of potatoes which has been put in the cold storage and thereafter, on that basis, the rent is charged and thereafter, by issuing gate pass, the potatoes are permitted to send out of the cold storage. In the year 2021-2022, in all he put 474 bags of potatoes on 12/3/2022 in the cold storage owned by accused no. 1 Ujjawalbhai Rajeshbhai Agrawal and while putting the potatoes in the cold storage, Supervisor, Vijaybhai Parjiji Thakor issued in the receipt and at that time, the accused no. 1 and accused no. 2 were present. However, after some time, he came to know that the aforesaid potatoes are sold by the owner of the cold storage i.e. accused no. 1 in connivance with the present applicant who is the manager of cold storage and hence, on 5/8/2022, when he along with the original receipt of potatoes went to the cold storage, the accused no. 1 snatched the receipt from him and said that potatoes are sold by him and he will not get those potatoes back and tear off the receipts. However, by pasting the pieces of the receipt, the same was kept by the complainant with himself. Similar act was allegedly committed by the present applicant along with the accused no. 1 in receipt of other farmers also and in all in respect of three farmers, total 1944 bags of potatoes were put in the cold storage amounting to Rs.15,45,480.00. However, the present applicant in connivance with the accused no. 1 sold away those stock of potatoes without taking consent from the respective farmers and therefore, the offence under Sec. 406 , 420 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the accused no. 1 and the present applicant who is the manager of cold storage as stated in the FIR.

(3.) Learned advocate Mr.Virvadiya appearing for the applicant submitted that the present applicant is not the manager of cold storage but he happens to be a commission agent and in this entire episode, he has not played any role. He submitted that there is some civil dispute going on between the parties for which he has preferred civil suit before the competent Court at Deesa. He submitted that for an incident occurred in the month of May, the FIR was registered in the month of December, which indicates that the FIR was registered after a delay of almost six months. He further submitted that in view of that on going dispute between the present applicant and the accused no. 1, he already had made complaint to the concerned police station, pursuant to which Inquiry Case no. 169 of 2022 was registered but that inquiry does not seem to be over and no FIR is registered despite insistence of the present applicant. He submitted that the present applicant is a victim of fraud committed by the accused no. 1 and therefore, considering the overall facts and circumstances as the present applicant is not a manager but the commission agent, he has wrongly been implicated in the offence in question and therefore, he should be enlarged on bail.