GOVIND SARDA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose off the above mentioned six petitions seeking quashing of FIR No.115 dated 21.3.2014 registered at Police Station Ambala City, District Ambala, Haryana under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and all subsequent proceedings emanating therefrom.

(2.) The FIR was registered at the instance of District Manager, HAFED, Ambala City, the gist of which is to the effect that 'M/s J.K. Jute Mills' had supplied 1300 gunny bales(each bale containing 500 bags), which did not even bear the marking of brand 'J.K. Jute Mills' and were either bearing marking of some other brand or were not bearing any marking at all. HAFED informed about the matter to Director General, Food and Supplies, Haryana (DGFS), who constituted a committee. The said committee visited Rail Head, Ambala and inspected the condition of bales and it was found that the bales do not contain markings of the agency. It is alleged that the mill had cheated HAFED and caused wrongful loss to HAFED while causing wrongful gain to itself by supplying old, mutilated, torn and unbranded gunny bales.

(3.) The learned senior counsl representing the petitioners has submitted that since the petitioners namely Govind Kumar Sarda, Damodar Parshad Bhattar, Shashi Kant Jha, Shobhanand Jha @ Ravishankar Prabhakar and Aditya Sarda are neither named in the FIR and nor can be said to be related to the firm 'M/s J.K. Jute Mills Company Limited', in any manner, therefore, they cannot be held liable for loss allegedly caused to HAFED, much less be liable for having committed any offence. It has further been submitted that, in any case, the contract pertaining to supply of 2600 bales (each bale containing 500 jute bags) was between DGS&D and M/s Jugilal Kamalapat Jute Mills Co. Ltd. as would be evident from Annexure P-3 (in CRM-M-24861-2015) and that HAFED had no privity of contract with M/s J.K. Jute Mills and since HAFED had made payment to DGS&D, which was to procure the jute bags, therefore, in these circumstance it cannot be said that M/s J.K. Jute Mills had cheated the complainant HAFED, in any manner.