Prashant Kumar Agarwal, J. - (1.) THE accused petitioner has filed this criminal miscellaneous petition u/s. 482 Cr.P.C. with a prayer to quash FIR No. 15/2012 registered at Excise Police Station Bayana, District Bharatpur for offences under sections 21, 54, 57 and 58 -C of the Rajasthan Excise Act.
(2.) BRIEF relevant facts for the disposal of this petition are that FIR No. 666/2012 came to be registered at Police Station Udhyog Nagar, Alwar on 2.12.2012 for the offence u/s. 407 IPC at the instance of one Shri Anil Kumar, Manager of East India Agency MIA Alwar on the premise that 500 cartons of Indian made foreign liquor entrusted to a carrier registration No. RJ -05 -GA -786 were dishonestly misappropriated and they did not reach the destination for which they were sent through the aforesaid vehicle. During the course of investigation of the aforesaid FIR, Investigating Officer ASI Shri Brijesh Kumar Meena raided the licensed liquor shop of the petitioner and recovered 7 cartons of the aforesaid liquor on 11.12.2012 and on that basis present FIR was registered against the petitioner on 13.12.2012 for the aforesaid offences. It is an admitted fact that after investigation charge -sheet has already been filed against the petitioner and cognizance has also been taken against him. During the course of investigation of the present FIR, it was found that the petitioner obtained the recovered cartons of the aforesaid liquor and kept them for sell in his retail shop in violation of conditions of the licence issued to him. It was submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that it is well settled legal position that for the same incident or for more than one incident committed in the same course of transaction, second or subsequent FIR cannot be registered and investigating agency is entitled to investigate all the offences committed in the same course of transaction. It was further submitted that as per prosecution case, during the course of investigation of FIR No. 666/2012 registered at Police Station Udhyog Nagar, Investigating Officer of the said FIR raided the licenced liquor shop of the petitioner and allegedly recovered 7 cartons of the said liquor and thus it is clear that the offence, if any, committed by the petitioner by keeping the recovered liquor in violation of the conditions of the licence issued to him, even then it is clear that the present offence was committed by him in continuation of the prior offence or in the course of the same transaction and in view of the same, the present FIR could not have separately been registered and investigated and all subsequent proceedings including the submissions of charge -sheet and order of cognizance being illegal and without legal authority are liable to be quashed and set aside. It was further submitted that it is also well settled that if for the same offence or for any subsequent offence committed during the course of the same transaction, second or subsequent FIR is registered, the same is liable to be quashed and set aside u/s. 482 Cr.P.C. In support of his submissions, learned counsel for the petitioner relied upon the case of T.T. Antony v. State of Kerala and Others reported in : (2001) 6 SCC 181.
(3.) ON the other hand, it was submitted by the learned Public Prosecutor that from the allegation made in the present FIR and material made available on record, it cannot be said that the present offence has been committed by the petitioner in continuation of the prior offence u/s. 407 IPC or it was committed during the course of the same transaction and therefore, the present FIR cannot be said to be second FIR for the same incident. It was further submitted that prior FIR No. 666/2012 was registered at Police Station Udhyog Nagar, Alwar on 2.12.2012 by the reason that the liquor entrusted to the carrier was misappropriated and did not reach the destination for which it was sent, whereas the present FIR has been registered on the ground that petitioner kept in his possession the recovered liquor in violation of the conditions of the licence issued in his favour although the recovered liquor is a part of the misappropriated liquor.;