DILIP KUMAR RAY Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Code of Criminal Procedure. in short) has been filed with a prayer to quash the First Information Report dated 23.5.2000, Annexure -1, lodged by Shri Binod Bihari Patel, Inspector of Vigilance, Sambalpur, so far as it relates to the Petitioner, under Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (hereinafter 'P.C. Act'), which has been registered by the Superintendent of Police, Vigilance, Sambalpur, as Sambalpur Vigilance P.S. Case No. 30 of 2000. It may be noted here that during pendency of this application, charge -sheet against the Petitioner has been filed.

(2.) THE case of the Petitioner in brief is that on 23.5.2000 the Inspector, Vigilance, Sambalpur, lodged the FIR, Annexure -1, alleging the therein that one Anil Kumar Chatterjee while posted as Forest Range Officer, Kuanrmunda Forest Range in Sundergarh district, abusing his official position during 1992 -93 had issued number of false Timber Transit Permits in favour of different persons without any supporting materials thereby putting the Govt. to heavy loss. An enquiry being conducted against said Chatterjee, it was found that he had issued T.T. Permits 53465/65/529/535/3121. dated 6.12.1992 in favour of one D.K. Ray of Puri showing transportation of Sal sizes 103 pieces, teak sizes 153 pieces, teak door 250 pieces, pannel shutters 16 pieces and window shutters 34 pieces stated to have been purchased as per cash memos. of Orissa Forest Development Corporation, Kalunga Saw Mill bearing No. 9214/222 dated 23.10.1992. On enquiry, the record of OFDC, Kalunga Saw Mill, however, disclosed that no such cash memo, against which the Range Officer had issued the T.T. Permits had been issued. Similarly the said Range Officer had also issued T.T. Permit No. 902/31/546/562 dated 17.3.1993 for 488 pieces of Sal sizes of 230.45 cft. in favour of one B.K. Das from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar against cash memo. of OFDC Kalunga Saw Mill No. 926/92515 dated 6.3.1993 and 925/92454 dated 12.3.1993 for a total quantity of 13.419 cft. and 10.159 cft respectively.

(3.) LEARNED Counsel for the Petitioner placed reliance on a decision of the apex Court in the case of the State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal, 1992 AIR(SC) 604 and submitted that taking the last guideline indicated in the aforesaid decision into consideration, the FIR lodged, the case registered and the charge -sheet filed were attended with blatant and glaring mala fides and ulterior motive of wreaking vengeance on the Petitioner due to the private and personal grudges of the powers that be. It would be worthwhile to quote hereunder the last guideline, i.e., guideline No. (7), as indicated in Bhajan Lal's case (supra):