JATINDER AGGARWAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition has been filed under sections 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short 'the Code') for quashing the complaint dated 11.12.1990 (Annexure P.1) and the summoning order dated 21.2.1991 (Annexure P.2), passed by the Judicial Magistrate, Mansa.

(2.) THE facts necessary for the disposal of this petition are that Vinod Kumar, respondent No. 2 herein, has filed a complaint under section 323/504/34, I.P.C., against the petitioners and their father Om Parkash Aggarwal. It has been alleged in the complaint that on account of business transactions certain amount is due from M/s Raman Trading Co., Bhatinda, of which the petitioners and their father are the partners. The complainant along with his father Ram Pal had been going to the firm of the petitioners many times to ask for the money and due to this fact the petitioners and their father had borne a grudge against him. On 9.12.1990 at about 11.00 a.m., the complainant was waiting for a bus at Bus Stand, Budhlada. The accused persons came to the spot and on seeing him, became aggressive and exhorted that since he was all alone, they would teach a lesson to him for asking about the money. Immediately thereafter, they caught hold of him by neck and gave slaps and fist blows to him and also hurled filthy abuses. In the meanwhile, Parmod Kumar and Dharam Pal, both residents of Mansa, happened to reach there who got him released from the accused persons. The complainant went to Police Station Budhlada but the police refused to take any action against the accused persons. Hence the complaint.

(3.) IT has been alleged in the present petition that the petitioners have been carrying on cotton business at Bhatinda under the name and style of M/s Raman Trading Co. During the course of business they entered into an agreement for purchase of 50 bales of cotton on 23.3.1990 at the rate of Rs. 520/- per maund with Sh. Ram Pal, father of the complainant, a partner in the firm M/s Aggarwal Cotton Ginning and Dall Industries, Mansa. A dispute arose between the parties regarding the payment of money in respect of this deal. M/s Aggarwal Cotton Ginning and Dall Industries, Mansa filed a complaint under sections 206/420/421/422, I.P.C., against the petitioners, their father Om Parkash Aggarwal and Kamla Rani in the Court of S.D.J.M., Mansa, on 23.7.1990. After recording preliminary evidence in support of that complainant, the S.D.J.M. by his order 13.1.1990 (Annexure P.3) dismissed the complaint with a finding that no prima facie case for summoning the accused for the said offence was made out. It has been alleged that the father of the complainant, to put pressure on the petitioners to settle the civil dispute, has coined the present complaint through his son, that all the allegations in the complaint are false and frivolous, that the petitioners are residents of Bhatinda and the occurrence is alleged to have taken at Bus Stand, Budhlada, which falls within the jurisdiction of Courts at Mansa and thus evidently the complaint has been filed to cause inconvenience and harassment to the petitioners to attend Court at Mansa. It has also been alleged that the present complaint and the summoning order are an abuse of the process of law and liable to be quashed.