Nilesh Singh Narveria vs State of M.P. and Another

Heard on admission.

Invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court conferred u/s 482 of CrPC, the petitioner has filed this petition for quashing First Information Report concerning Crime No. 264 of 2013 registered against him for the offence u/s 420, 467, 468 and 120B of IPC, Section 45(5) of RBI Act and Section 3(1)(2)(4) of the The Madhya Pradesh Nikshepakon Ke Hiton Ka Sanrakshan Adhiniyam, 2000. Facts in a nutshell giving rise to the petition are that complainant Ravindra Singh Tomar submitted a complaint to Collector, District Gwalior stating that Raghuvendra Singh Narveria being Chairman and others being Directors of B.N.P. Real Estate, B.N.P. India Developers Infrastructure and B.N.P. Insurance and Investment Service India Ltd. received Rs. 50,000-50,000/- from him and other persons with the assurance that either they would give plot to them or return the amount with interest but neither they gave the plot nor returned the money and in this way, they have cheated the complainant and others and closed the office situated at Pramila Plaza Thatipur and fled away The said complaint was made over to Additional Superintendent of Police (East), City Gwalior which was inquired into by the concerned police. During inquiry, statement of few persons were recorded. After inquiry, it was found that the Chairman as well as Director cheated the persons and after taking money, they fled away and the aforesaid offence was prima facie found to have been committed by them. The said FIR has been registered against them on 4.7.2013.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the said company was not engaged in money laundering from complainant or other persons. No sufficient material was available before the Station House Officer to register the FIR against the petitioners and others named in the FIR. Hence, no offence is made out against the petitioners, consequently, the FIR registered against the petitioners deserves to be quashed.

The arguments were considered.

The matter is under investigation and is at primary stage. The Apex Court after considering the various judgments has held in State of Orissa and Another Vs. Saroj Kumar Sahoo, that if investigation is incomplete, it is impermissible for the High Court to look into materials, the acceptability of which is essentially a matter for trial and further in para 14 of the judgment, it has been held as under:

It is to be noted that the investigation was not complete and at that stage it was impermissible for the High Court to look into materials, the acceptability of which is essentially a matter for trial. While exercising jurisdiction u/s 482 Cr.P.C., it is not permissible for the Court to act as if it was a trial court. Even when charge is framed at that stage, the Court has to only prima facie be satisfied about the existence of sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused. For that limited purpose, the Court can evaluate material and documents on records but it cannot appreciate evidence. The Court is not required to appreciate evidence to conclude whether the materials produced are sufficient or not for convicting the accused. In Chand Dhawan v. Jawahar Lal, it was observed that when the materials relied upon by a party are required to be proved, no interference can be drawn on the basis of those materials to conclude the complaint to be unacceptable. The Court should not act on annexures to the petitions u/s 482 Cr.P.C., which cannot be termed as evidence without being tested and proved.

Recently also, the Hon''ble Apex Court has taken the same view in C.P. Subhash Vs. Inspector of Police Chennai and Others,

On perusal of the documents brought on record and from the material collected during investigation, it is apparent that at this stage, it cannot be said that the First Information Report lodged against the petitioner is totally frivolous and petitioner is maliciously implicated. On perusal of the FIR, it appears that a number of similar offences have been registered against the said companies at other places also. At this stage, conclusion cannot be drawn that allegations made in First Information Report are absolutely absurd and prima facie no case is made out against petitioner.

Resultantly, considering the factual matrix of the case as stated herein above, it is not just possible to hold at this stage that First Information Report concerning Crime No. 264 of 2013 registered at PS Thatipur is totally false, frivolous or fictitious. All these points will be decided after investigation is completed. So no ground is made out for quashing the FIR. Accordingly, the petition being sans merit, is hereby dismissed.

Certified copy as per rules.