- (1.) B. K. Rathi, J. This petition has been filed to quash the proceedings of Criminal Case No. 279 of 2000 under Sections 302, 468, 217, 218, 201, 120-B, 176 and 177 read with Section 34 IPC pending in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Saharanpur.
(2.) THE facts giving rise to this petition are as follows: The petitioner is an I. P. S. Officer and it is alleged that his career throughout was very bright and he had held very important posts in different districts of Uttar Pradesh. The petitioner was also awarded President's police medal for gallantry in 1990 while he was posted as Superintendent of Police, Lakhimpur Kheri. The petitioner was posted as S. S. P. , Saharanpur from 15-8-1996 to 16-3-1997. During this period he was awarded letter of appreciation by the Director General of Police. The incident of this case took place on 28-2-1997 at 11 p. m. in village Daudpur, police station Dehat District Saharanpur. The F. I. R. of this incident was lodged by Ruliya Singh. According to which three persons, namely, Kuldeep Singh, Surajbhan and Sompal were returning to their house on motor cycle. They were fired at by the police party as a result of which two persons died on the spot and the third person died on way to hospital. According to the F. I. R. three persons were in police uniform in a car and fired on them, but no body could recognise them. The name and description of the police personnel was also not mentioned in the F. I. R. The matter was entrusted to C. B. C. I. D. for investigation. It was investigated by the Inspector of C. B. C. I. D. and charge-sheet for the above offences has been submitted against the petitioner and other accused.
(3.) TWO contentions have been raised in this petition. The first is that there is no proper sanction for prosecution under Section 197 Cr. P. C. and, therefore, the prosecution is bad. The other contention is that the matter was investigated by an officer of an Inspector rank of C. B. C. I. D. who is a non-gazetted officer. As against this, the petitioner is a Gazetted Officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police and, therefore, according to clause 1 (3) of paragraph 486 of U. P. Police Regulations the investigating officer should be of higher rank than the officer charged. The provisions of Regulation is mandatory and any investigation in violation of the provisions of the said paragraph will be illegal and is liable to be quashed. Counter affidavit has been filed by the State of Sri Dev Raj Singh, Inspector C. B. C. I. D. on behalf of the opposite parties. According to him the matter was investigated and it was found that the police party who committed the murder included the present petitioner; that, therefore, charge-sheet was submitted against the petitioner; that the investigation was entrusted to C. B. C. I. D. by letter of Director General of Police. It further alleged that the sanction for prosecution is a proper sanction and the prosecution is not barred under Section 197 Cr. P. C.;