SUBRAMANIAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition is under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure to quash the First information Report No. 210/91 pending on the file of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Madras.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, who is the accused, as the complaint given by the respondent complainant before Virugambakkam Police had been already referred to and a notice also was sent to the complainant, he cannot file another complaint before the Inspector of Police, C.B. C.I.D., who has registered the case in A.F.I.R. No. 210/91 for investigation and the second investigation is not permissible under law.

(3.) ON a perusal of the records, I find that the respondent herein filed a complaint on 2.3.1990 before the Judicial Magistrate, Poonamallee, alleging that the accused in his complaint, who is known to him through his relative, lured him to purchase properties at Madras in his name as he was earning a lot in Saudi Arabia and believing his words, he sent huge amounts to the accused on different dates hoping that he would purchase the propertioes in his name as promised by him, that the accused also told him that the properties have been purchased by him in his name, but only in the end of 1989, he came to know that the accused have purchased the properties from out of his funds, in his own name, that when asked him to return the money sent by him from the foreign country, the accused refused and then only he came to know the fraud played upon him by cheating and therefore, he filed the complaint for the offence under Sections 420, 406, 408 and 477-A Indian Penal Code. The learned Judicial Magistrate Poonamallee, forwarded this complaint under Section 156 Code of Criminal Procedure to Virugambakkam Police for investigation and report, Virugambakkam Police registered this complaint in Crime No. 196/90 and though the original records are not found, the copies of the report read that on 22.4.90 Virugambakkam Police sent a report to the Judicial Magistrate, Poonamallee, stating that it is the case of civil nature and therefore no case could be registered against the accused. Even though it is stated that this report was sent on 22.4.90, the Judicial Magistrate, Poonamallee, did not record this report of the Police till 1994 and only two years after this petition, which was filed in 1992, when the entire records including the report sent by the Police were called from the file of the Judicial Magistrate, Poonamallee, he found no report of the police in his file and when he called for the details from Virugambakkam Police, they informed him that they have already sent a report on 22.4.1990 and a copy of that report was sent to the Magistrate in December 1994. Acting upon this copy of the report, the learned Judicial Magistrate, Poonamallee, recorded the report of the police only on 23.12.1994. In the meanwhile, the complainant, who did not hear anything about his complaint given to the Judicial Magistrate, Poonamallee, for nearly a year, sent a complaint in respect of the very same occurrence to the Superintendent, C.B. C.I.D., who forwarded the complaint to the Inspector and on the basis of this complaint, a case was registered against the petitioner herein in F.I.R. No. 210/91. Because of the referred charge, issued by the Virugasmbakkam Police on 22.4.90, the petitioner accused would contend that the second complaint and second investigation by the C.B. C.I.D. in First Information Report No .210/91 is not maintainable and this second complaint has to be quashed.