ANIL JHAWAR Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three criminal miscellaneous petitions have been preferred by the accused petitioners with a common prayer to quash the FIR No.2/2012 registered at Police Station Kotwali, District Sri Ganganagar for the offences under Sections 109, 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC.

(2.) The facts in brief are that the respondent No.2 complainant Purshottam Nagpal lodged a complaint in the court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sri Ganganagar against seven persons including the petitioners. The names of the accused persons with their respective designation are mentioned hereinbelow for the sake of ready reference:-

(3.) The complainant alleged that the seven accused persons had formed a group, which was involved in cheating innocent traders by fraudulent means. The accused Naresh Goyal called the complainant into his office at 35 E Block, Sri Ganganagar and fraudulently induced him with an offer to provide him high quality of potatoes through NCDEX. Specific quality of potatoes in terms of the contract were displayed to the complainant with an assurance that he would be getting the same quality of potatoes and the accused would be financing him in one account and in the other account, he would get potatoes on loan basis. He was asked to sell potatoes, get the profits and repay the amount to the accused. The complainant fell for the trap laid by the accused and made an agreement with them to purchase 4500 tonnes of potato through NCDEX. The complainant allegedly paid a sum of Rs. 1,85,00,000/- on the NCDEX platform with the aid of the accused Naresh Goyal and Suresh Rawal. Naresh Goyal provided some documents to the complainant in his office and informed him that he should collect the consignment of potatoes from Agra office of the JICS Logistic Ltd., Indore, of which, Anil Jhanwar was portrayed to be the owner and Arvind Maheshwari was alleged to be the authorized officer. The complainant, alongwith his associate Khemchand reached the office of JICS Logistic Ltd. on 03.10.2011 and presented the documents provided by Naresh Goyal to Arvind Maheshwari, who kept the papers with him and told the complainant that 80000 bags of potato meant for the complainant were lying in the K.P. Cold Storage, Hathras Road, Agra and 10000 bags of potato were lying at Atul Ice and Cold Storage, Ramnagar, Khandauli, Agra and the complainant was asked to lift the same in trucks. The complainant and Khemchand reached the K.P. Cold Storage, Hathras Road, Agra and requested the concerned staff to show the quality of the potato. However, they were assured that the potatoes met the standards of NCDEX and there was no need to check the same. Satisfied with this assurance, the complainant and his associate were made to sign the delivery papers. However, on checking, they were shocked to find that the potatoes were substandard and rotten as well. The cost of such potato would be one-fourth in the market as compared to what was paid by the complainant on the NCDEX Platform. The complainant, immediately contacted Naresh Goyal and complained about the substandard quality of potatoes supplied to him by the cold stograge. Naresh Goyal asked the complainant to contact Arvind Maheshwari and in case, he was able to resolve the problem, the complainant was advised to contact one Rohit Shukla. The complainant was also asked to submit the complaint in writing. As advised by Naresh Goyal, the complainant contacted Arvind Maheshwari, who replied that he would himself come to the cold storage for checking the quality of the potatoes supplied. However, he failed to to turn up at the cold storage and also stopped answering the complainant's calls. The complainant, thereupon contacted Rohit Shukla, who assured that Arvind Maheshwari would come to the cold storage, but thereafter he also stopped picking the complainant's calls. The complainant sent messages to Rohit Shukla, who replied that Arvind Maheshwari was attending his calls and that the issue would be addressed by Mahesh Tiwari. The complainant and Khemchand thereafter left the truck in the cold storage and sent a complaint in writing to Naresh Goyal and Suresh Rawal. On the next morning, the complainant returned to the cold storage with Khemchand, where the truck owner cum transporter Chhotu Bhai told them that he had been advised by Rajesh Agarwal to move the truck out of the cold storage immediately because the delivery documents had been signed. The complainant tried to stop the truck, but the truck driver went away with the truck without waiting for his instructions. The complainant lodged a report with the police and the truck could be located after three days. The complainant alleged that this entire sequence of secreting the truck was aimed at preventing him from getting the quality of the potato verified. Four to five days later, Mahesh Tiwari and Rohit Shukla came to the cold storage and threatened the complainant that he should accept the consignment as it is or else it would be auctioned and he would get a single penny. The complainant felt that he was being cheated, on which he went and made a complaint at the Forward Markets Commission, Mumbai. The officers of the Forward Markets Commission notified Mahesh Tiwari, Rohit Shukla etc., on which they called the complainant and assured that in future whatever goods were supplied, the same would be meeting the standards of NCDEX. Thereafter the complainant started lifting the consignment of goods. The complainant came to know from local sources that Rajesh Agarwal, owner of the K.P. Cold Storage had sold the good quality potato in the local market and substituted the same with substandard potatoes purchased from the local farmers and fraudulently supplied the same to the complainant causing him huge loss. The complainant made complaints to the ADM, Agra, the DM, Agra, DIG, Agra as well as the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Government in person as well as in writing, but no action was taken on his fervent pleas. Rohit Shukla and others kept on threatening the complainant and forced him to accept the substandard consignments of potatoes and coerced him into signing the documents and threatened that if he showed any hesitation, no further consignment would be ever given to him. The Manager of the Cold Storage was having criminal background. A huge sum of Rs. 30 lacs of the complainant's firm was lying as security with the Karvy Comtrade Ltd., of which Naresh Goyal and Suresh Rawal were partner. But these persons blatantly refused to retun the amount despite the complainant's lawful claim.