S.BALASUNDRAM Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Original Petition is filed with a prayer to quash the Final Report filed in C.C.No.8045 of 2017 on the file of the learned Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai.

(2.) On source information, a case was registered in RC MA1 2016 A 0038 CBI by the respondent. The information was that the first accused, an Enforcement Officer with Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, and the second accused, who runs a chain of restaurants, conspired together. The first accused accepted a sum of Rs.10.00 Lakhs as a bribe and allowed the second accused to submit false Provident Fund accounts to cheat the organisation and gain undue pecuniary advantage by not paying the actual Provident Fund dues.

(3.) After investigation, the information was found to be incorrect, and the investigation did not reveal any evidence to substantiate the allegations against both the public servant and the second accused. Therefore, further action was dropped against the accused, against whom the case was registered. However, during the course of investigation, it was found that the petitioner/Balasundram was only filing returns and other compliances for the second accused and was acting as a consultant to them, receiving fees, as reflected in his bank statements and Income Tax Returns. Since Balasundram, being a public servant employed by Andrew Yule and Company Ltd., a Government of India undertaking, is prohibited by his Conduct Rules from engaging in such profit-making activities, his actions amounted to an offence under Sec. 168 of the Indian Penal Code. As a result, the respondent filed a Final Report charging him with an offence under Sec. 168 of the Indian Penal Code.