Ravi Setia vs State Of Rajasthan And Ors

The instant criminal misc. application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. is filed by accused-applicant for recalling order dated 07.03.2017 passed by Court, while disposing of Criminal Misc. Petition No.560/2017 laid by complainant-Vijay Kumar Setia. It is also prayed in the petition that investigating agency be directed to thoroughly conduct fair and impartial investigation in the matter before submitting final report before the concerned trial Court, Besides this, some other directions are also sought by the accused-applicant.

The Court, while considering Criminal Misc. Petition No.560/2017 and taking note of the submissions made by learned Public Prosecutor, passed following order on 07.03.2017:

"Petitioner-complainant has filed this petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C. for issuing necessary directions to the Investigating Agency to conduct fair and impartial investigation with promptitude into FIR No.420/2006 of Police Station Kotwali, District Sriganganagar.

It is submitted by learned Public Prosecutor that investigation in the matter is completed and filing of charge-sheet in the matter is in offing.

Looking to the fact that FIR is of more than a decade old, it is expected of the Investigating Agency to make sincere endeavor for submission of charge-sheet in the matter as early as possible preferably within a period of 30 days from today.

The petition is, accordingly, disposed of."

Undisputed facts are that complainant lodged FIR No.420/2006 at Police Station, Kotwali, District Sriganganagar against applicant for offence punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 & 120B IPC. The aforesaid FIR was registered considering the complaint of respondent-complainant under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. It so happened that during investigation, investigating agency, taking the dispute between rival parties as civil dispute, proposed negative final report and the same was submitted before learned trial Court. Feeling aggrieved of the negative final report, the complainant submitted protest petition and upon consideration of the same, learned trial Court on 29.07.2013 sent the matter for further investigation to the investigating agency. When further investigation was in vogue at the behest of complainant, aforesaid criminal misc. petition was filed and same was disposed of by the order quoted hereinabove.

In the application, it is inter-alia averred by accused- applicant that investigation in the matter was not conducted in a fair and impartial manner and even when the investigation did not reach to its logical conclusion, learned Public Prosecutor informed the Court about its completion inasmuch as at that point of time report of Forensic Lab was also not received by the investigating agency.

I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the factual report submitted by learned Public Prosecutor as well as order-sheet of learned trial Court dated 06.06.2018.

Well it is true that at the time of considering Criminal Misc. Petition No.560/2017 filed on behalf of complainant, learned Public Prosecutor did not present correct status of the investigation but then subsequently the investigation has been completed in the matter and the agency has also received FSL report. The factum of completion of investigation stated by learned Public Prosecutor on 07.03.2017 coupled with his statement of filing of final report/charge-sheet in near future, more particularly, when investigation was still in progress, is a matter of grave and serious concern, and therefore, the Court is constrained to record its indignation for making this sort of submissions. The investigating agency or Public Prosecutor is not expected to furnish incomplete and half-hearted information to the Court. In criminal cases, result of investigation, either way, is to be furnished before the Court with utmost care and caution. Be that as it may, it is observed that such action of investigating agency is highly undesirable and cannot be countenanced. However, now in the wake of receipt of FSL report and completion of investigation, as noticed by learned trial Court, it would not be just and appropriate to recall order dated 07.03.2017. The application of applicant about fair and impartial investigation too cannot be gone into at this stage after receipt of FSL report and completion of investigation as the same can be considered by the learned trial Court at appropriate stage. The investigating agency is now expected to take appropriate action with promptitude in accordance with law.

In view thereof, the application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. filed on behalf of accused-applicant, is hereby rejected subject to the observations made supra.