Rajasthan High Court: In a petition seeking the quashment of FIR dated 23-08-2019, registered under Sections 420, 406, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of the Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), and Section 65 of the Information Technology Act, where the investigation resulted in multiple charge sheets, but none of the charges implicated the petitioner, a single-judge bench of Arun Monga, J., disposed of the petition as the petitioner was not an accused, and no supplementary charge sheet was proposed. The Court also referenced Section 193(9) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) and asserted that further investigation after the filing of a police report could only be conducted with the trial court’s permission.
The Court noted that the main issue in hand is whether the FIR against the petitioner should be quashed based on the findings of the investigation, which did not attribute any role or offense to the petitioner. The Court noted that four charge sheets had been filed, none of which named the petitioner as an accused. The Court asked the prosecution whether a supplementary charge sheet was intended to be filed against the petitioner. The Court noted that the Additional Advocate General presented a factual report stating that no offense was found to have been committed by the petitioner. Furthermore, no supplementary charge sheet was proposed, as the allegations against the petitioner were found to be unsubstantiated.
The Court agreed with the prosecution’s report and held that no culpability was attributable to the petitioner. The Court opined that since the petitioner was not named as an accused in any charge sheet, the prayer for quashing the FIR became unnecessary.
The Court further emphasised that, as per Section 193(9) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), no further investigation could be carried out without the trial court’s permission once a report under Section 193(3) had been filed.
The Court disposed of the petition as there was no substantive evidence against the petitioner, and no further investigation was warranted. The Court dismissed the petition as infructuous.
[Gajendra Singh Shekhawat v. State of Rajasthan, 2024 SCC OnLine Raj 2886, Decided on 25-09-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
Mr. V.R. Bajwa, Sr. Adv. assisted by Mr. Aditya Vikram Singh, Mr. Ajit Sharma and Mr. Yuvraj Singh, Counsel for the Petitioner
Mr. Deepak Choudhary, GA-cum-AAG assisted by Ms. Sonu Manawat and Mr. Vikram Singh Rajpurohit, PP; Mr. R.D. Rastogi, ASGI assisted by Mr. B.P. Bohra; Mr. Mukesh Rajpurohit, DSG assisted by Mr. Prakash Raika and Mr. Chiranji Lal Meena, Addl. S.P. SOG, Jaipur, Counsel for the Respondents
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