YOGENDRA SINGH Vs. LARSEN AND TUBRO COMPANY LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a criminal revision under Section 397 read with Section 401 of Cr. RC. against the order dated 28-10-1999 passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sidhi in criminal Case No. 1077/99 taking cognizance for offence under Section 406,418 and 422 of IPC and issuing process to the petitioner on the basis of a complaint filed by the respondent.

(2.) THE facts giving rise to this petition are these:-The petitioner Yogendra Singh and the respondent Larsen and Turbo Company Limited were having business relations over a passage of time, and an amount more than Rs. 4.00 lakhs was to be paid by the petitioner to the respondent towards payment of business dealings. It is alleged that the petitioner gave cheques but they are bounced. Since there were good relations between the two, no action was taken by the respondent and conse­quent to a discussion between the two, the petitioner gave a demand draft of Rs. 3.00 lakhs to the respondent. Before the amount of the demand draft could be col­lected from the bank, the petitioner fraudulently reported to police that the concerned demand draft was missing and also informed the bank not to honour the concerned demand draft as it was missing. This respondent where upon filed a criminal complaint against the petitioner. The learned Chief Judicial Magistrate by the impugned order dated 28-10-1999 registered a criminal case for offence as above against the petitioner. Aggrieved by the impugned order, the present petition has been filed by the petitioner.

(3.) THE learned senior counsel ap­pearing for the petitioner has drawn my attention on the decision of Supreme Court in Mohammad Atullah v. Ram Saran Mahto, AIR 1981 SC 1155, and has contended that since the matter was sent for investigation to the police and the police had reported that it was a civil dis­pute, there was legal flaw in registering a criminal complaint against the petitioner on the basis of such police report without recording further evidence.