G.MANI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been filed praying to quash the FIR in Cr.No. 7 of 2012 on the file of the respondent/Inspector of Police, Vigilance and Anti Corruption, Vellore Detachment, Vellore.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that he joined service in the year 1980 as Assistant Engineer in the Engineering wing, Agricultural Department, thereafter he was promoted to the post of Assistant Executive Engineer and finally as Executive Engineer in the year 2008 and attained superannuation on 30.06.2015, but the very last day of his service i.e, on 30.06.2015, the petitioner was not permitted to retire from his service and he was placed under suspension, on the ground that the FIR registered by the respondent police was pending. The petitioner was not aware of the FIR dated 24.02.2012, till April 2015. The petitioner came to know when the process of getting NOC from the Vellore Division where he was served. Though the FIR was lodged on 24.02.2012, he was not called or summoned by the respondent either for enquiry or for investigation.

(3.) The petitioner was arrived as A1 in the FIR, the allegations in the FIR is that in the implementation of the Agricultural Mechanization Scheme certain irregularities had happened and A1 to A9 had conspired to commit misappropriation of funds, the Government had introduced the scheme for replacement of old pump sets with new pump sets to save consumption of electricity. The said scheme has to be directly implemented by the Assistant Executive Engineer of the respective sub-divisions with the help and support of the Assistant Engineer/Junior Engineer working under them. The officials viz., Executive Engineer and the Superintending Engineer have no role to play in implementing the scheme. The evidence gathered would clearly show that the Assistant Executive Engineer and other subordinate officials who connived the electrical shop keepers in siphoning off the subsidies granted for agricultural farmers. There is no evidence against the petitioner for implicating him in any manner, the charges are levelled against the petitioner for the offences under Sec. 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Sections 120B, 467, 468, 471 and 420 of IPC, the Court stands as legal scrutiny as none of the ingredients therein are satisfied. The continuance of criminal proceedings in the above said crime number would tantamount to miscarriage of justice and cause irretrievable mental agony and prejudice to the petitioner. Hence, the petitioner filed the present petition to quash the FIR pending on the file of the respondent police.