SIDDIK OSMAN GAJAN Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by the petitioner for seeking following reliefs:

(2.) The premise on which the present petition is brought before this Court is that petitioner was duly elected as a Sarpanch of Kervandh Juth Gram Panchayat. During the tenure of petitioner being Sarpanch, a show-cause notice was issued by respondent-authority on 19.12.2017 alleging that one criminal complaint was registered on 07.06.2017 before Bhuj City A Division Police Station for the offences punishable under Sections 465 , 467 , 471 , 473 and 114 of the IPC which was lodged as I-C.R. No.111/2017. It was the case in the complaint that during the course of police patrolling in the area of Bhuj Town, a private information was received that two males and one female were moving in a suspicious position and their names are referred to in the complaint and when they were intercepted and napped by the police authority, it was found that they have did not any VISA passport. Upon personal inquiry of Manzura Khatun, d/o Imam Saddar, it was found that she was having certain documents in support of her claim of being Indian Citizen, but then, it was alleged that accused Manzura Khantun is though a citizen of Bangaldesh and yet has created fictitious fabricated documents posing to be an Indian Citizen and moving in the town without any valid documents with the aid and assistance of the petitioner, and thereby, since the petitioner Sarpanch assisted her in creating such fabricated documents, the petitioner has misused his position as a Sarpanch. During the course of investigation, the search was also made of the premises of the petitioner and the panchnama was drawn on 08.06.2017 wherein it was found that some objectionable materials / documents were found from the residence of the petitioner for which there was no explanation or satisfactory reply available with the petitioner. After thorough investigation and after collecting the relevant materials, the police authority found a case against the petitioner. As a result of this, the petitioner was arrested on 08.06.2017 in connection with the aforesaid criminal complaint.

(3.) From the record, it appears clearly that though initially in FIR, the petitioner was not named, however, after thorough investigation, some materials were found, as a result of this, the charge-sheet came to be filed on 18.08.2017 against the petitioner in which the petitioner was shown as accused No.1 along with other accused persons. Since the petitioner was involved himself in such a serious offence and misused his position as a Sarpanch, the petitioner was called upon to show- cause notice vide notice, as referred to above.