AJAI RAI Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, Ajay Rai, has prayed for quashing an FIR dated 10-5-1994 lodged against him by the Senior Inspector of Police, as contained in Annexure 2 to the writ petition.

(2.) As per Annexure 2 to the writ petition, a case Crime No. 118 of 1994 under Section 3(1) of the U.P. Gangster and Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 (in short, as the Act) was initiated by FIR No. 79 dated 10-5-1994. Allegations were made therein against the present petitioner and one Umesh Yadav stating that the petitioner had formed a gang with others and were engaged in unlawful activities and in the commission of offences under Chapters 16 and 22 of the I.P.C. and were terrorising people being armed with unlawful weapons. People did not have the courage to speak against them. The FIR gave the details of 3 cases ranging from 1989 to 1994 for offences of criminal intimidation, murder, and attempted murder committed by the petitioner.

(3.) In the petition not only the involvement of the petitioner in the earlier cases were denied but also the very basis of the FIR in the present case has been challenged. It was stated that of the 3 earlier cases two were of 1989 and one was of 1994 and all were pending. It was contended that the cases of 1989 had become stale for the purpose of initiation of the present of FIR. It was urged that the petitioner had not been convicted in any of the offences till date. The writ petition went on to assert that the term "gang" as defied in the Act rests on the meaning of the term "indulges", and, according to the learned counsel, this term "indulges" would mean habitually doing some thing, and unless there was proof of commission of the earlier offence an FIR could not have been lodged for an offence earlier under the Act and, accordingly, according to the learned counsel, mere allegations made in the earlier FIRs may not be sufficient to infer that the petitioner "indulges" in any anti-social activities.