Allahabad High Court
Om Prakash Pandey vs State Of U.P. And Another on 9 December, 2019
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 81 Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 45419 of 2019 Applicant :- Om Prakash Pandey Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- Ashok Kumar Giri,Arvind Prabodh Dubey Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Dinesh Kumar Singh-I,J.
Heard Sri A.P. Dubey, learned counsel for the applicant, Sri Suraj Singh, learned A.G.A. appearing for the State and perused the record.
This application under Section 482 Cr.P.C has been moved with a prayer to quash the entire proceedings of S.T. No. 301 of 2019 under section 13(1)E, 13(2) r/w Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 arising out of Case Crime NO.780 of 2016, Police Station Kotwali Mau, District Mau as well a cognizance order dated 14.05.2019 pending in the Court of Additional District Judge/Special Judge (A/C), Court No.5, Mau and also a prayer is made to stay the proceedings in this case till the disposal of this application.
It is argued by the learned counsel for the applicant that in FIR his total income from all known sources is shown Rs.6,72,259/- while expenditure is shown Rs.14,22,252/- and hence income disproportionate to his known source of income is shown to be Rs.7,49,993/- while in charge sheet the total income has been found from all sources to be Rs.10,48,599/- and expenditure is found to be Rs.14,22,253/-, hence disproportionate income is found to be Rs.3,73,654/- i.e. 36.63% of the known sources of the income which is much lower than what was mentioned in the FIR. It is further argued that the applicant is the only son of his father and other sources from which he had income, have been ignored such as agricultural land, ancestral property i.e. garden which was sold, his wife was a private doctor, her income was also not added etc. Therefore, he has prayed that there is an error in calculation of his income from all known sources. If that is taken into consideration, there would be no excess amount of expenditure, therefore, proceedings against the applicant need to be quashed. He has further argued that the accused-applicant has already got himself bailed out.
Learned A.G.A. has vehemently opposed the prayer for quashing the proceedings and has stated that the defence of the accused/applicant cannot be taken into consideration at this stage.
I have gone through the record and found that the applicant has set up a defence that his other known source of income has been ignored by the Investigating Officer and that there was no excess expenditure as has been shown and the entire income and expenditure stands well explained. I find that the defence at this stage cannot be taken into consideration. I do not find any reasonable ground to quash the criminal proceedings against the applicant because that would amount to evaluating the evidence, which has been gathered during investigation by the Investigating Officer.
From the perusal of material on record and looking into the facts of this case, at this stage, it cannot be said that no cognizable offence is made out against the applicant. All the submissions made at the Bar relates to the disputed questions of fact, which cannot be adjudicated upon by this Court in proceedings u/s 482 Cr.P.C. At this stage only prima facie case is to be seen in the light of law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in cases of R. P. Kapur vs. The State Of Punjab, AIR 1960 SC 866, State of Haryana and others Vs. Ch. Bhajan Lal and others, AIR 1992 SC 604 and State of Bihar and Anr. Vs. P.P. Sharma, AIR 1991 SC 1260 lastly Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. and Ors. Vs. Md. Sharaful Haque and Ors., AIR 2005 SC 9. The disputed defense of the accused cannot be considered at this stage.
The prayer for quashing the proceedings of the aforesaid case is refused.
However, it is directed that if the applicant moves an application for discharge within 15 days from today, the same shall be dispose of by the trial court in accordance with law within 30 days.
The application is according disposed of.
Order Date :- 9.12.2019 AU