- (1.) The Petitioner has invoked the inherent jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure for quashment of his entire criminal proceedings arising out of Lohardaga P.S. Case No. 57 of 2000, corresponding to G.R. No. 153 of 2000, pending before the CJM, Lohardaga and further for quashment of the order dated 30.11.2007 by which cognizance of the offence under Sections 147/148/149/364A/387/414/201/212, Indian Penal Code was taken against the Petitioner.
(2.) Prosecution story in short was that the informant Bijay Gopal Dutta on 20.5.2000 at about 4:30 hrs. (a.m.) left his house alone for morning walk and during course of such walk, he reached at the door of one Birendra Mittal, pressed his call bell and returned on the road. When Mr. Mittal did not come, he proceeded towards Harizan School where he witnessed a trekker in a static condition parked on the flank of the road and occupied by as many as six persons. When the informant Bijay Gopal Dutta proceeded on the road, the trekker followed him and as soon as he reached near the house of one Dr. N.K. Sinha, two culprits stepped down from the trekker, forcibly dragged him inside the trekker and look him towards the forest. The miscreants were in the age group of 24-25 years, who had masked their faces with muffler and shawl and were armed with country made pistols and other arms. Demand of ransom was raised in kind of gun and cartridges. He was threatened to be killed in case of non-fulfillment of the demand. He was confined till midnight and he was released only after delivery of DBBL gun and cartridges to them by his staff Ras Bihari Dey. He returned back his home at about 3:40 a.m. on the next day. On the basis of the statement of the informant, Lohardaga P.S. Case No. 57 of 2000 was instituted on 21.5.2000 against unknown culprits for the alleged offence under Sections 147/148/149/364A/387/386/368, Indian Penal Code. In course of investigation. Chanho police arrested three persons, namely, Jahir Ansari, Meraj Alam and Mehndi Hasan and one DBBL gun was also recovered from their possession, which was suspected to be the ransom in kind, which was delivered to the culprits securing the release of the informant. All the three culprits had confessed their guilt before the police. Co-accused Jahir Ansari in his confessional statement delivered before the police took the name of Raju @ Meraj, Mumtaj, Ranjit Singh, Imamuddin, Neyaj, Niranjan Bharti @ Baba. Pawan and Rafique Ansari being the accomplice, who abducted the informant Bijay Gopal Dutta and received Rs. 3,80,000/- in cash as well as a gun and cartridges in kind as ransom for the release of the informant He further confessed in his statement before the police that after accepting the ransom all the accused went to the house of the Petitioner Lal Ranjan Nath Sahdeo and delivered him Rs. 1,00,000/- in cash out of ransom and the gun, which they had obtained from the employee of the informant as ransom in kind. Charge-sheet was submitted after investigation on 12.10.2000 against Neyaj Ansari, Niranjan Bharti @ Baba and Mukhtar Ansari. Supplementary charge-sheet was submitted by the Investigating Officer on 21.5.2001 against Pawan Verma and Mehndi Hasan. Second supplementary charge-sheet was filed on 11.8.2001 against the accused Jahir Ansari, Meraj Alam and Rafique Ansari. Petitioner was arrested on the basis of the confessional statement of the accused Jahir Ansari but he was released on bail by the CJM under Section 167 (2), Code of Criminal Procedure as the charge-sheet could not be submitted against him within the stipulated period.
(3.) Learned Counsel Mr. Jitendra S. Singh submitted that the co-accused Jahir Ansari, on whose confessional statement complicity of the Petitioner was transpired, was put on trial along with other accused in S.T. Nos. 65/2002 and 65/2002(S) and was finally acquitted by the judgment dated 4.8.2006 for want of evidence, yet, investigation was shown to be pending against the Petitioner for long seven years and finally, charge-sheet was submitted against the Petitioner on 31.10.2007 for the said offence in which earlier charge-sheet was filed and the cognizance of the offence was taken on different dates. It could be evident from the Xerox copy of the judgment delivered by the Additional Sessions Judge, P.T.C., Lohardaga recorded in S.T. No. 65/ 2002 on 4.8.2006 as contained in para-3 that cognizance of the offence was taken against the accused persons, namely, Neyaz Ansari, Niranjan Bharti, Mumtaj Ansari, Pawan Verma, Mehandi Hassan, Md. Jahir, Meraj Alam and Rafique Alam on three different dates on 12.10.2000, 21.5.2001 and 13.8.2001 respectively on the basis of three different charge-sheets by the learned CJM, Lohardaga and the case was committed to the Court of Sessions on 13.5.2002, which was registered as S.T. No. 65/2002.;