NALINIKANTA MUDULI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner, Nalinikanta Muduli, brought this Criminal Misc. case under Section 482 Cr.P.C. invoking inherent jurisdiction of this Court seeking quashment of F.I.R. No. 61 of 2000 lodged by Shri Krupasindhu Balabantaray, Inspector, Vigilance Cell, Bhubaneswar.

(2.) Bhubaneswar Vigilance P. S. Case No. 61 of 2000 was registered on the information embodied in F.I.R. No. 61/2000. Accusation fastened to the petitioner as per impugned F.I.R. may be delineated as below: The petitioner happens to be one of the trustees of Nabapravat Trust at Bhubaneswar. Nilachal Polytechnic and Nilachal Institute of Computer Science are run by the said Trust. The petitioner has obtained special class and super class contractor's license fraudulently. He had a conspiracy with Susanta Kumar Kar, Branch Manager of O.S.F.C. Branch No. 1, Bhubaneswar. He handed over Industrial Estate consisting of land more than half an acre along with two IDCO sheds etc. comprising Plot No. B-3 and B-8 of Mancheswar Industrial Estate, Bhubaneswar to the petitioner in undue haste on 7-7-1997 at a considerable lower price of Rs. 20,000,00/- with down payment of Rs. 5 lakhs and the balance of Rs. 15 lakhs was treated as loan components particularly with the security of the same land and sheds on condition that in case of diversification of the products of sale, the buyer has to take written approval of loan lending institution. As such, the buyer would continue the same products of M/s. Utkal Ceramics until further clearance from O.S.F.C., IDCO and other authorities. The petitioner swore an affidavit before Shri P. M. Sundarray Notary Public, Bhubaneswar on 4-7-1997 declaring his Educational Qualification as Civil (B.E.). One Bichitrananda Muduli happens to be petitioner's father.BhubaneswarVigilance P.S. Case No. 25/2000 was initially registered against him on the accusation that he possessed disproportionate assets to his known source of income as Chief Engineer in Rural Works Department of the State Government. He is having a three storied building at 67- Sahid Nagar, Bhubaneswar. It is alleged that petitioner Nalinikanta Muduli is not a Degree Engineer but he could manage to get M/s. Berina Marine Pvt. Ltd. registered as Fabrication Unit with DIC, Bhubaneswar vice provisional Registration Certificate No. 151510528 dated 19-11-1998 and impersonated himself as Engineer. He insisted IDCO to transfer the title of land and sheds. Saroj Kumar Sahoo happens to be Managing Trustee-cum-Secretary of the Trust. He is working as Principal of the aforesaid technical institutions. It is further alleged that there is no study atmosphere nor infrastructure nor adequate apparatus in those Institutions for imparting technical education to the students from whom they must have collected lakhs of rupees for imparting such education. The petitioner and his associates have heavily bribed the officials and managed to get affiliation for the said technical institutions. They have also availed of lakhs of rupees and financial assistance fraudulently from the Government in the guise of imparting technical education to O.B.C. candidates. The I.O. after completing investigation laid charge sheet against the present petitioner as well as Saroj Kumar Sahoo, Principal of the technical institutions and Susanta Kumar Kar, Branch Manager O.S.F.C. Bhubaneswar-1 for commission of cognizable offences under Section 120-B/ 420/468/471 IPC and Section 13 (2) read with 13 (1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

(3.) Appearing for petitioner, his counsel, Sri S. C. Parija contended in one sentence that even if averments of Impugned FIR are accepted to be true no cognizable offence either under Prevention of Corruption Act or Indian Penal Code can be said to have been committed by the petitioner. This contention of Sri Parija has been refuted by Sri D. K. Mohapatra, appearing for Vigilance Organisation. According to him in view of conspiracy hatched between the petitioner and officials of O.S.F.C. valuable assets of the Corporation have been transferred to M/s. Zerina Marine (P) Ltd. for Rupees 20,00,000/- with down payment of Rupees 5,00,000/- and the balance of Rupees 15,00,000/- has been treated as loan. This, according to him, amounts to conspiracy of the petitioner with the accused persons.