KRIPAL SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ORDER :- This petition under S. 561-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been filed by the petitioner for quashment of F.I.R. No. 8 of 1982 registered for offences under Ss. 409, 467, 120-B, 468, 477-A of the Ranbir Penal Code and S. 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, in Police Station Anti-Corruption, Jammu.

(2.) The facts relevant for the disposal of the petition may be summed up as under :- The petitioner was a Government servant, working as a cashier in Government Treasury R. S. Pora. He retired from service some time in 1984. In the year 1981, a case was registered at Police Station, Vigilance, Jammu under F.I.R. No. 5 of 1981 for some alleged embezzlement in the Treasury on the basis of inspection conducted by the Defence Audit Department. The amount of embezzlement was suspected to be to the tune of Rs. 12,395/-. After investigation in the said F.I.R. was completed, the petitioner, along with one Satvinder Singh, was challaned and sent up to face trial in the Court of Special Judge, Anti-Corruption, Jammu in the year 1991 under S. 5(2) of the J. and K. Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006 Smvt. Sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 109 read with S. 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code. The trial of the said case is still going on.

(3.) During the course of investigation in the aforesaid case, many more forgeries involving embezzlement to the tune of Rs. 8,07,049.83 came to light, in which regard a separate F.I.R. No. 8 of 1982 was registered and the Vigilance Organisation proceeded to investigate the matter in order to trace out the various documents and the officials, connected with or involved in the alleged forgeries and embezzlement. The investigating agency also wanted the petitioner to join the investigation in F.I.R. No. 8 of 1982, the quashment of which is now sought by the petitioner in the present petition, on the following grounds :-