Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 16: High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed Disproportionate Assets (DA) case registered by Anti-Corruption Bureau against Bhupinder Singh Dua, the then MD SICOP.
After hearing Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi with Advocate Parimoksh Seth for the petitioner, Justice Javed Iqbal Wani observed, “although in the impugned FIR, nine factories are alleged to be belonging to the petitioner, however, perusal of the CD reveals that allegation and assertion has not been substantiated by the investigating agency”.
“The assertion of the petitioner that there has been a judicial separation between him and his wife in 1997, has not been disputed or else denied by the respondents, so is also not being disputed and denied by the respondents that the petitioner is living separately in the first floor of the house at Nanak Nagar and his wife and children in the ground floor and that whatever recoveries have been made during investigation had been made from the ground floor and not from the first floor where the petitioner is living”, High Court said.
“The CD file further reveals that ever since the date of undertaking of the investigation and the initial recoveries made thereof by the respondents during the course of investigation, no headway has been made in the investigation from initial stage, so much so no incriminating material or evidence worth the name, has been collected by the investigating agency against the petitioner for supporting the case set up by the investigating agency, that too in view of the fact that there has been no stay granted by this court against conducting of investigation in the impugned FIR”, Justice Wani said.
“Basis of the prosecution case and evidence collected during the course of investigation renders it highly improbable to have the petitioner charged and convicted for the offences covered in the impugned FIR. This court cannot overlook the fact that the respondents in the earlier FIR 10/1997 and the present impugned FIR, have leveled broad allegations viz-a-viz the same and similar assets against petitioner”, Justice Wani said, adding “the impugned FIR is 3rd in succession registered by the respondent against the petitioner and broadly with the same and similar allegations against the petitioner”.
“The law is no more res integra that registration of successive FIRs in connection with same or connected cognizable offenses have been held to be violative of Article 21 of the Constitution. Insofar as exercise of inherent powers enshrined under Section 482 CrPC is concerned, law is settled and is no more res-integra that in exercise of the wholesome power vested in the High Courts under Section 482 Cr.P.C, the High Court is entitled to quash a proceeding, if it comes to the conclusion that allowing the proceedings to continue would be an abuse of process of the court”, Justice Wani further said.
With these observations, High Court quashed the impugned FIR.
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