- (1.) The petitioners have not knocked the door of this Court under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter called the Code) praying for quashing of criminal proceeding being G.R. Case No. 1275 of 1994 arising out of Jalpaiguri Kotwali P.S Case No. 370 dated 11.10.94 under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (in short IPC) now pending in the Court of the learned Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (in short SDJM) - now redesignated as ACJM and also the chargesheet filed in the said G.R. Case in CRR No. 1142 of 1996 and also for quashing of complaint case being C.R. No. 317 of 1994 now pending before the learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Court, Jalpaiguri under sections 138 and 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (hereinafter referred to as NI Act) through revisional application being CRR No. 2753/96. As both the criminal proceedings arose out of same facts and parties are same as well as points of law involved are same in these two revisional applications, I intend to dispose of both the criminal revisional applications by this common judgment and order.
(2.) Before entering into the merit of the case and rival contention of the parties, it would.be fruitful to reproduce the facts of the case and I intend to mention first the facts concerning CRR No:2753 of 1996.
(3.) O.P. No. 2 Amal Kumar Das as complainant instituted complaint case C. R. No. 317 of 1994 against the present petitioners as accused persons under sections 138 and 141 of the NI Act before the Court of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jalpaiguri. It was alleged in the complaint that the complainant is a reputed Government contractor and he is carrying on his contract business under different Government departments. The accused No.1 namely, M/s. Debendra Bejoy Ghosh & Ors. is a partnership firm and accused Nos. 2, 3 and 4 (present petitioners) are the constituent partners of accused No. 1 firm. The accused No. 1 firm also carries on different works as contractor and they were allotted the jobs of Jalpaiguri Irrigation Division, Coochbehar Irrigation Division, Teesta Barrage Project since 1984 and for the purpose of convenience of their business the accused Nos. 2 to 4 established a branch office of accused No. 1 firm at Jalpaiguri town.;