The Bombay High Court recently granted relief to a 45-year-old man by quashing the FIR and chargesheet against him for being accused of stealing 17 currency notes in ₹2,000 denomination and said that “allowing the proceedings would not be in the interest of justice”.
A Division Bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and Manish Pitale was hearing a criminal petition filed by Taleb Rafiq Beg, a businessman at Beed.
On February 3, 2017, Mr. Beg went to one Damyanti Pardeshi’s office and requested to get one ₹2,000 currency note in exchange of four ₹500 currency notes required for a pooja.
Ms. Pardeshi alleged that he snatched a bundle of ₹2,000 notes from her and took out 17 notes instead of one. A day after, she lodged a complaint against Mr. Beg accusing him of cheating and criminal breach of trust at Pimpri police station.
Advocate Hassnain Kaazi Sayyed, representing Mr. Beg, argued that he was falsely implicated and there was no material to link him to the case.
The Bench said, “A bare perusal of the FIR does not show any offence with which Mr. Beg can be linked to the present case. The police apprehended him on August 6, 2017 and sought his remand on August 7 for an incident that occurred on February 4, 2017, without there being even an iota of material to link him with the incident in question. Therefore, we are of the opinion that Mr. Beg has successfully made out the case for quashing of the FIR.”
While allowing the petition, the HC said, “Mr. Beg has been able to make out his case for exercise of extraordinary and inherent power of this court to quash the criminal proceedings initiated against him. We find that the nature of material brought on record in pursuance of investigation and filing of chargesheet does not even prima facie indicate his involvement in the alleged offence. Therefore, allowing the proceedings to continue in pursuance of such an FIR and chargesheet would not be in the interest of justice and would amount to abuse of the process of law.”
