N P VENKATESH Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner is accused in Cr.No.11/2007 of 1 Town PoliceStation, Mahaboobnagar registered for the offence U/s 212, IPC. This petition is filed to quash the proceedings in the above crime. THE allegation in against the petitioner is that being a legal practitioner he harboured the accused in Cr. No. 4/2007 of Koolkonda Police Station and made the accused to escape from the housep on seeing the Police. After verification of the record, it is seen that there is no mention in the complaint or in the subsequent statements as to when the accused in the other crime came to the house of the petitioner. Whether they have stayed; whether they were provided shelter and how many days stayed in the house etc., details are not available in the record. On the other hand the petitioner stated that when the accused came to him and expressed their intention to surrender to the police, he telephoned to the Inspector of Police and on his information the Inspector of Police came to him and arrested the accused. Here presence of the accused in the house of the advocate, whom they engaged to defend them in the case cannot be treated as harboring the accused, unless there is material to show that he intentionally kept the accused in his house to present the police from arresting them. Since there is no prima facie material to prove the said act, I find that it is a fit case to quash the proceedings.

(2.) THEREFORE the proceedings in Cr. No. 11/2007 of 1 Town Police Station, Mahaboobnagar, initiated against the petitioner are quashed. The petition is accordingly allowed.