Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

8. On the other hand, learned Public Prosecutor would contend that F.I.R. is not an encyclopedia which should contain all the details, more so, when it is given by an illiterate person, who was working in the office of Brahmananda Reddy (A1). According to him, the investigation is still at inception and even the Police were not able to collect and place all the information, in view of the stay granted by the High Court within a month of registration of crime. He further submits that about five crimes vide Crime Nos.204 of 2020, 216 of 2020, 217 of 2020 and 218 of 2020 of Thullur Police Station and Crime No.15 of 2020 of CID Police Station are already registered against the petitioner and the same are being investigated into. He would submit that though the petitioner has approached this Court seeking quashing of those crimes as well, but, this Hon'ble Court only protected the petitioner from his arrest and never stayed the investigation. He would further plead that though the survey numbers of the lands are not mentioned in the F.I.R., but, the lands forming part of the villages and the persons who purchased the lands at the instance of A1 and the role of the petitioner herein were mentioned in the F.I.R. It is urged that about 260 documents are already registered and 189 documents are pending registration. According to him, the modus operandi adopted by the petitioner and others is that the property, which is sought to be sold, is shown as patta land in the Revenue records by changing the status of the land and thereafter sold the said land to the purchasers at a high price, while forcibly taking those lands/assigned lands from the Harijans, by informing them that they will not get more amount than what is offered by them, if Government takes over their lands. He would further contend that the statement of one, Gummadi Suresh, who also purchased land, would show as to how the petitioner masterminded the entire fraud and how he, along with others, cheated the innocent harijans and took their assigned lands at a throw away prices and thereafter sold them at a higher prices. In fact, according to him, immediately after registering the crime, Police raided the house of the petitioner and incriminating material relating to lands was found in the house, which clearly shows that even after retirement, he was still having the pattadar passbooks and documents, which should have been in the Tahsildar Office. He took me through the statement of L.W.1 recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C. in support of his plea

19. The same is strongly opposed by the learned Public Prosecutor contending that F.I.R. is not an encyclopedia which should contain all the details and it is also not a substantive piece of evidence. According to him, a reading of the report as a whole, would indicate that the informant is also aggrieved by the acts of the petitioner, which is clearly indicated in the last portion of the report and as such it is in continuation of the first limb. Hence, pleads that there is nothing wrong in police investigating into the matter. He would further submit that in view of Sections 154 and 156 of Cr.P.C. the Police Officer has no other option except to investigate into the matter, when commission of cognizable offence is brought to his notice.

51. Though the learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner would contend that allegations in the report are vague, as there is no reference even to a single transaction, leave alone mentioning the survey numbers, it is to be noted here that this is only a First Information Report setting the law into motion. It is not an encyclopedia, as held by the Supreme Court in catena of judgments to contain all the details of the transactions. At the same time, it cannot also be said that the report is very vague, since it refers to farmers from various villages visiting the office of A1 and the forward caste people (names mentioned in F.I.R.) from different areas purchasing the assigned land from the Harijans, at the behest of A1, and the petitioner being instrumental in getting the lands included in land pooling scheme of the Government, though they are assigned lands.