- (1.) Petitioners have preferred this petition under Section 482 of the Code Criminal Procedure, 1973 seeking quashing of the FIR No. 314 dated 19.12.2009 registered under Sections 307/324/323/382/148/149 of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC' for short) and 25 and 27 of the Arms Act,1959 at Police Station Sadar Rajpura, District Patiala (Annexure P1) and all consequential proceedings arising therefrom.
(2.) FIR in question was lodged on the statement of Pritpal Singh, complainant. Since the matter was not being duly investigated, Pritpal Singh filed Crl.Misc. M-8388 of 2010 in this Court. On 09.2.2012, the following order was passed by this Court:- "The present petition has been filed under section 482 Cr.P.C seeking direction to hand over the investigation of the case FIR No. 314 dated 19.12.2009 under Section 307/ 323/ 148 /149/ 382 IPC and under Sections 25/27/25(54)/59 of the Arms Act, 1959 , registered at P S Rajpura District Patiala, to some independent Investigating Agency or CBI. It is pointed out that earlier the inquiry was conducted by DSP Manmohan Kumar Sharma. The said inquiry was duly accepted bythe Superintendent of Police, Patiala.However,at the behest of the respondents, inquiry was once again handed over to SP (Operation) Shamsher Singh Boparai, who found the respondents innocent. Thereafter, two more inquiries were got conducted by SP (head quarter) Narinder Singh Sekhon and Inspector (Crime) Piara Singh, respectively. Now, learned counsel for the State, on instructions from ASI Ravinder Krishan, states that un-traced report has since been prepared and the same is likely to be submitted before the trial Court very soon. It is no disputed by the learned State counsel that the petitioner has suffered fire-arm injuries. It is also not disputed that the weapon involved in the present incident has been recovered. The petitioner has specifically named the accused persons. There is nothing on record to show as to how the accused persons who were specifically named by the petitioner in the said FIR, have been found innocent and as to how the said un-traced report has been prepared in spite of the evidence available. In all, there appears to be something wrong with the inquiry. In order to ascertain the truth, this Court deem it proper that the said investigation be handed over to an Officer of the rank of DIG, who shall personally supervise the investigation to be conducted by an officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police (Crime). The said inquiry shall be conducted in a fair and proper manner. The handing over the investigation to the above said Officer does not mean that the same has to be conducted in a particular way. The same is being handed over to ascertain the correct position. The said inquiry shall be completed within a span of two months from today and thereafter, final report shall be submitted before the trial Court in accordance with law. Disposed of in the above terms."
(3.) In pursuant to the said order, the investigation was conducted by AIG/Investigation Crime Punjab, Chandigarh under the supervision of Inspector General of Police (Crime). By way of the present petition, the petitioners have challenged the said report whereby the petitioners have been ordered to be arrested and challan has been ordered to be presented against them. Since the matter has been duly inquired into by the AIG Investigation (Crime) Punjab Chandigarh in pursuance to the order of this Court, no ground for interference is made out. As per the investigation, now, conducted in pursuance of the order passed by this Court, intimation has been sent to the Senior Superintendent of Police Patiala to arrest the accused persons and put up the challan in the Court.;