KAMAL MASIH KHOKHAR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose of aforementioned three petitions praying for grant of anticipatory bail to petitioners Kamal Masih Khokhar in CRM-M-16847-2020, Juliet Rocky Dean and Jagdish Dean in CRM-M-16502-2020 and Sober Daud Daniel @ Sobar Danial in CRM-M-17844-2020, in FIR No.2 dated 15.06.2020 under Sections 177, 198, 406, 420, 424, 465, 467, 468, 471, 477-A, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC'), registered at Police Station NRI, Gurdaspur, District Gurdaspur.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioners submit that in fact, the present FIR has been registered as a counter-blast to the earlier FIR No.74 dated 18.07.2018 under Sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 471, 120-B IPC, registered at Police Station Sadar Batala against William Dean, who is complainant in the present FIR.

(3.) As per allegations in the FIR, William Dean belongs to Village Sunaiya and in 1985-1986, he left for Germany and settled there. His aunt Ms. Fanina Dean was running a Memorial School for the primary education of the children and after her death, Nathaniel Dean started looking after affairs of the school. It is further stated that he has contributed crores of rupees for construction of school, which started on purchasing of 64 kanals 16 marlas of land. On 14.03.1998, Nathaniel Dean came to Germany to raise funds and the complainant along with his brother and other relatives including Shanti Chaudhary and Emmanual Chaudhary collected the donations for the noble cause. Later on, a trust deed was registered on 22.02.1999 in the name of Allen Memorial School and construction of the school started in 1999-2000. It is further stated that none of the accused in the present FIR has donated a single penny, whereas the complainant has details of the donations given by him. In the year 2005, complainant and his brother Victor Dean, Wilson Dean and Shanti Chaudhary were appointed as ambassadors of the school and Daniel Sadhu Masih was appointed a new trustee. Nathaniel Dean died in the year 2006 and then Principal Juliet Dean was also financially helped by the complainant. In 2011, Rocky Dean, administrator of the memorial school died and in 2013, in a trust meeting, new trustees were inducted and complainant and his cousin Lily Patrick were inducted as trusted and on 11.12.2013, an amended trust was submitted before the I.T.O. Another supplementary trust deed was registered on 26.10.2015 with the help of accused persons. Later on, it was proposed to sell the school and when the complainant contacted his lawyer, he informed that trust deed is not valid and another supplementary deed was registered in 2017 and when certified copy was applied from office of Registrar, it was found that there are two trusts and funds of the donations were siphoned off to accounts of the trustees and Samuel Chaudhary, on a letter indirectly written to Nathaniel Dean, though he was in USA in 2002. It was also stated that for the last 20 years, no renovation of the school was done and the complainant himself paid the bills for PF, income tax, after his appointment as Chairman. With the poor performance of the accused persons, school was left only with 30 children and accordingly, it was decided to sell land outside school. It was also found that the amount received for free school uniform and books for the children was mis-utilized. After the board resolution, the land outside the school premises was sold for overhauling of the school facility and a sum of Rs.70 lacs was received, which was used for its renovation, providing mid-day meal to children, free uniform, books, fixing of ROs for clean drinking water, construction of septic tanks, removal of roof leaking, new electric fitting including plaster and painting of the entire school and thus, the strength of the school again increased to 600. It is further stated that motive of Denial Sadhu Masih was to extort money from the complainant on account of expenditure, which was never utilized for the purpose it was taken. When accused Daniel Sadhu Masih started interfering in the work of Allen Memorial School, a civil suit was filed in the year 2017 to the effect that the complainant is not a trustee or office-bearer of the school. The Civil Court directed the parties to maintain status quo. It is further stated in the FIR that all the accused persons, by hatching a conspiracy and getting a new trust deed dated 25.03.1999, without cancelling the original deed dated 22.02.1999 and by not taking the members of the trust in confidence, have committed an act of fraud and forgery, therefore, the present FIR has been registered.