- (1.) PETITIONER has prayed for quashing the order dated 20.9.2000 whereby cognizance for the offences under Sections 420, 409, 467, 468 and 120 -B of the Indian Penal Code was taken against him and also for quashing the entire criminal proceeding of C.P. Case No. 851 of 2000 pending in the Court of Sri O.N. Choudhary, Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Dhanbad.
(2.) THE primary ground advanced by the petitioner in support of his prayer is that even on going by the entire allegations in the F.I.R., no criminal liability is made out against the petitioner and at best, the dispute can be considered as a civil dispute for which, civil remedy is available. Learned counsel for the petitioner while elaborating the grounds, submits that the petitioner is no more concerned with the cooperative society of which the complainant is the member and even otherwise, during the relevant period, petitioner was merely the President of the cooperative society and he had no obligation either to receive any payment or subscription of money from the members of the society or to retain account for the money received, since such acts were exclusively confined to the Secretary and the Treasurer of the society. Learned counsel explains further that though the complainant has claimed to have paid a sum of Rs. 57,000/ - besides the membership fee, but the petitioner and the Secretary has given him receipt only for a sum of Rs. 35,400/ - and receipt for the amount of Rs. 21,225/ - was not given to him on one pretext or other. It is further submitted that the complainant had never made any request to the society for allotment of land to him and had he approached, he would have definitely been allotted land in the same manner as allotment made to the other members of the society.
(3.) LEARNED counsel for the opposite - party No. 2 while referring to the petition filed for vacating the order of stay, earlier passed by this Court, submits that the present application of the petitioner is totally devoid of any merit and informs that a similar application for quashing the entire criminal proceeding was earlier filed by the accused ex -secretary of the cooperative society, but the said application was dismissed as withdrawn by the order of this Court passed by another Bench. It is further submitted that despite the fact that cognizance of the offences against the accused persons, including the petitioner, was taken more than seven years ago, yet the present petitioner has been avoiding and evading his appearance in the case on one pretext or other.;