RAGHAV CHANDRA Vs. TARVINDER KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners seek quash-ment of Criminal Case No.66/2000, pending against them in the Court of J. M. F. C. Jabalpur, wherein, cognizance of offences punishable u/S. 395, 448 and 427 of the I. P. C. is taken, on the private complaint filed by the respondent.

(2.) As per the complaint, on 8/06/1992, at 10 p.m. petitioners Nos.1 to 3, who were then posted as Collector, Addl. Collector and City Magistrate, Jabalpur, respectively, came to the residence of respondent situated at 1142, Prem Nagar, Jabalpur, along with 200 to 250 Policemen and surrounded the same. At the same time, Sardar Swarnjeet Singh, the elder brother of respondent's husband and Dhashmesh Singh Sethi alias Montu, the son of the sister of respondent's husband, who were staying at the residence of respondent, also reached her residence in Premier Padmini Car, belonging to the husband of the respondent, bearing No. MUZ-2067. The Police personnels searched this Car and then only permitted Sardar Swaranjeet Singh so also Montu to enter the house of the respondent, who at that time, was staying at her maternal home situated at Muzaffarnagar. All the Police persons were in uniform and were carrying deadly weapons like rifles and pistols. Sardar Swarnjeet Singh and Montu are stated to have narrated this sequence of incident to the respondent, that they saw Sardar Hardeep Singh, the husband of the respondent sitting in drawing room along with petitioners Nos.1 and 2, xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx who were in plain clothes. There were some more persons in plain clothes and out of these persons, Raghav Chandra, petitioner No.1, directed petitioner No. 3 K. C. Jain, to search the entire house. then K. C. Jain, the petitioner No.3 along with Policemen, searched the house wherein, petitioner No.2 Brijendra Kumar also joined K. C. Jain, after some time. petitioner No.1 then asked Hardeep Singh to handover the keys of locked almirahs who expressed his inability on the ground that the keys are with his wife (respondent), who was at Muzaffarnagar, that time. Then Raghav Chandra directed to break-open the locks of almirahs and therefore, K. C. Jain and Brijendra Kumar got the locks of almirahas broke open, through the help of Policemen. Raghav Chandra further directed K. C. Jain to seize all the gold ornaments and cash amount from the almirahs. At the same time, one plain clothed person not only took away money from a child's purse, but they took away with them the remote control of the Television also. The suit-case (attache) of Sardar Swaranjeet Singh was also searched, which contained a total amount of Rs.30,000/-, brought by Swarnjeet Singh from Akola for making purchases at Delhi. The petitioners took away the aforesaid money also with them. K. C. Jain snatched the gold chain of Dhashmesh Singh Sethi alias Montu in which word "Montu" was inscribed in English letters on gold. This golden chain inclusive of locket weighed 15-16 gms. One golden ring on which English letter "M" was inscribed so also Titan watch, which Montu was wearing, were also taken away by K. C. Jain. The other accused Policemen cooked breakfast in the kitchen of the petitioner and utilised the entire food material available in the kitchen, including milk, Rasna, Tea, Coffee powder etc. and broke most of the valuable crockery, deliberately. The accused persons along with entire Police force stayed at the petitioner's residence till 5 a.m. on 9/06/1992. At the time of this incident, petitioners Nos. 1 to 3 along with other plain clothed persons entered in the girls hostel, who were making preparation for their exams. to be commenced the next morning and unnecessarily interrogated them till late night. Then the girls were called in the residential portion of the respondent's house where they were again questioned till 5 a.m. on 9-6-1992. Thereafter, the accused took away the respondent's husband with them and got the residential portion of the house locked by Sardar Swarnjeet Singh, who along with Dhashmesh Singh alias Montu, went to the respondent's sister-in-law, namely Smt. Jasbeer Kaur Chandok, resident of 363, Napier Town, Jabalpur, where at that time, the respondent was also present. In the company of Sardar Swarnjeet Singh, Smt. Jasbeer Kaur and Montu respondent reached her residence at about 5 p.m. on 11-6-1992, when the lock was opened by Sardar Swarnjeet Singh.

(3.) On 2/07/1992, the respondent's husband was released, who was in a very bad physical condition. After a period of 15-20 days, the condition of respondent's husband improved, who also told the petitioner that nothing incriminating was found in his possession, yet he is falsely implicated. Then the petitioner went to the Garha Police Station for seeking an information as to how much money and gold ornaments are recorded to have been seized, at the time of incident dated 8th of June, 1992, but no seizure memo was available at the Police Station at that time. Since Police Garha did not receive the report of the respondent, she sent the F. I. R. to S. P. Jabalpur, on 27-8-1992 through registered post. Thereafter, through registered post, the respondent submitted an application to His Excellency, the Governor of Madhya Pradesh on 6-8-1992 for grant of sanction for prosecution, as required u/S. 197 of the Cr. P. C., but no sanction was received in a fortnight and hence under the aforesaid circumstances, the respondent filed a private complaint against petitioners Nos.1 to 3, on 5-9-1992, for offences punishable u/S. 395, 402, 427, 448, 469 R/w. Sec. 34 of the I.P.C., which is marked as Annexure A/3. The copies of statements of witnesses of respondent, are cumulatively marked as Annexure A/4.