- (1.) By the present application, under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the applicant, who is an accused, in Case Crime Nos. 524 of 2012 and 525 of 2012 registered at P.S. Dadri, District Gautam Budh Nagar, has prayed for quashing of the charge-sheet No. 301 of 2012 dated 08.10.2012 and charge-sheet No. 325 of 2012 dated 30.10.2012 submitted by the police in connection with the above cases and has further prayed for a direction to the Investigating Officer or to the trial court concerned to direct the Investigating Officer to submit an impartial investigation report by another agency and to complete investigation after clubbing six separate FIRs pertaining to Case Crime Nos. 524 of 2012, 525 of 2012, 526 of 2012, 530 of 2012, 531 of 2012 and 688 of 2012 all registered at P.S. Dadri, District Gautam Budh Nagar.
(2.) Despite the above elaborate prayer, Sri V.P. Srivastava, learned senior counsel, who has appeared for the applicant, assisted by Sri A.K. Sachan, has confined his prayer only for quashing of the charge-sheet of aforesaid Case Crime No. 525 of 2012 on ground that it relates to the same incident as Case Crime No. 524 of 2012. The thrust of the argument is that there could be no two first information reports of the same crime /incident, hence, proceedings in pursuance of the second charge-sheet are liable to be quashed and the same ought to be treated as supplemental charge-sheet to Case Crime No. 524 of 2012.
(3.) For a better understanding of the facts of the case, it would be useful to give a brief description of the separate cases, which have been referred to in the application. The six cases are as follows:- (i) Case Crime No. 524 of 2012 at P.S. Dadri, District Gautam Budh Nagar was registered on the first information report lodged by Mool Chand Sharma against four named accused apart from others. The named accused were Bhola, Gagan, Ankit and Arun Arya (the applicant). In the first information report, it has been alleged that while the informant was leaving his 'Gali' (a narrow path way), he saw Bhola, Gagan, Ankit and Arun Arya (the applicant), along with others, teasing girls. The informant objected to it, on which the accused persons started beating the informant and when others intervened, the accused persons escaped from the spot by firing in the air. (ii) Case Crime No. 525 of 2012 at P.S. Dadri, District Gautam Budh Nagar was registered on the first information report of Devki Nandan Sharma (appears to be brother of first informant of Case Crime No.524 of 2012) against Arun Arya (the applicant), Gagan, Bhola, Pramod, Ashok and Yogesh. In this first information report, it was alleged that when Mool Chand Sharma had objected to the eve teasing, he was beaten. As a result, he lodged report against Arun Arya (the applicant) and others. Feeling aggrieved by lodging of the first information report, the accused persons came, armed with weapons, and fired at Ravindra, Vikas, Deepak and Banti, which resulted in the death of Ravindra and caused injuries to Deepak and Vikas. This first information report related to an incident which occurred at about 9 PM in the night of 12.08.2012, whereas the incident which gave rise to Case Crime No. 524 of 2012 occurred much earlier, sometime, at about 4:30 PM for which first information report was lodged at 17:15 hours. (iii) Case Crime No. 526 of 2012 relates to first information report lodged by one Kapil Sharma (son of Mool Chand Sharma- the first informant of Case Crime No.524 of 2012) against Dhanpal and one Prem. In this report, the applicant is not an accused. In this first information report, which was lodged on 13.09.2012 at 7:30 AM, it has been alleged that when, in the morning of 13.09.2012, the informant along with his father (Mool Chand Sharma) and Sachin had gone to see the persons injured in the incident dated 12.09.2012, at the hospital, the accused Dhanpal and Prem shot at the informant with an intent to kill him but, somehow, the informant could escape. The motive for the incident which gave rise to Case Crime No. 526 of 2012, as per the first information report, appears to be to finish off the witnesses of the earlier incident dated 12.09.2012. However, the applicant is neither an accused nor an informant in the said case. (iv) Case Crime No. 531 of 2012 has been registered on the first information report of one Navin Kumar against several persons including the informant of Case Crime No. 526 of 2012. In the FIR of this case it has been alleged that in the morning at about 7 AM, on 13.09.2012, a number of persons had congregated at the house of the informant to take revenge for the incident, which took place in the night of 12.09.2012, in which Ravindra Sharma had died. In case crime no. 531 of 2012, the applicant is neither an accused nor an informant. (v) Case Crime No. 688 of 2012 has been registered at the instance of Manju wife of Laxman Singh in which several persons have been made accused including the informant of case crime no. 526 of 2012. In this case, the informant has alleged that large number of persons had come armed with weapons and had destroyed the belongings of the informant. This case appears to be related to an incident which allegedly took place at about 7 AM on 13.09.2012. It appears to be a case of retaliation against the murder of Ravindra Sharma. The applicant is neither an accused nor an informant in the said case. (vi) Case Crime No. 530 of 2012 appears to have been registered on a first information report lodged by Major Veer Singh Arya (the father of the applicant) in which a counter version of the night incident dated 12.09.2012 has been set up.;