Telangana High Court
Methuku Rambabu And 4 Others vs The State Of Telangana And Another on 7 December, 2020
Author: T. Vinod Kumar
Bench: T. Vinod Kumar
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE T. VINOD KUMAR
Criminal Petition No.6158 of 2020
ORDER:
This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. seeking to quash the FIR No.396 of 2020 on the file of the Station House Officer, Godavarikhani I-Town Police Station, Peddapally District, registered for the offences punishable under Section 498- A IPC and Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act. The petitioners are arrayed as accused Nos.1 to 5 therein.
2. Heard Sri Moraparaju Narsing Rao, learned counsel for the petitioners/A.1 to A.5 and learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the respondent-State and perused the material placed on record.
3. With the consent of the learned counsel appearing for the parties, the criminal petition is taken up for hearing through Video Conferencing in the virtual Court today, i.e. 07.12.2020.
4. The learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the first petitioner is a Doctor living in Bangalore, while petitioners 2 & 3 are the mother and father of the first petitioner, who are arrayed as accused Nos.2 & 3 in the above crime and are senior citizens. Petitioners 4 & 5 are his married sister and brother-in-law of first petitioner. The 5th petitioner is also a Doctor and living at Bangalore. The learned counsel would further submit that there are no specific allegations against the accused no. 2 to 5 for being charged with commission of offence u/s.498-A IPC.
5. After making initial submissions, the learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that though the present petition is filed for 2 quashing of Crime No. 396 of 2020, however, he is restricting the relief sought for in the present criminal petition only to the limited extent of seeking a direction to respondent authorities for issuing notice U/s 41-A of Cr.P.C. and for following the guidelines laid down by the Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar1.
6. The learned Additional Public Prosecutor would submit that since the crime registered relates to the matrimonial issue, the respondent police authorities would follow the guidelines prescribed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar's case (supra) in the above crime and would issue notice u/s.41-A of Cr.P.C.
7. Having regard to the submissions made as above, the respondent police authorities are hereby directed to follow the procedure prescribed under Section 41-A of Cr.P.C. and abide by the guidelines as set out by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar's case (supra). However, it is made clear that the petitioners shall cooperate with the investigating agency for completion of the investigation as expeditiously as possible.
8. Subject to the above direction, the Criminal Petition is disposed of. Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this criminal petition shall stand closed.
___________________ T. VINOD KUMAR, J Date: 07.12.2020 Isn 1 (2014) 8 SCC 273