Observing that the police machinery was used to settle a private dispute and later the parties decided to settle the same, the Bombay High Court has agreed to quash the criminal case after the parties deposited Rs 2.5 lakh each Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority.
A division bench of justices Prasanna Varale and Anil Kilor has asked the parties to deposit the amount within four weeks, failing which the FIR will be revived automatically.
While quashing the complaint, the HC observed: “After going through the contents of the FIR and the allegations made in the FIR it reveals that no element of public law is involved in the present matter and as the dispute is settled, it would be a futile exercise to allow the trial to continue… We find that no purpose would be served by keeping the criminal proceedings pending except burdening the Criminal Courts which are already overburdened.”
On December 15, 2021, one Rajeshkumar Mishra lodged an FIR, on behalf of his company M/s Lloyd Insulation (India) Ltd, against Basant Mishra for cheating.
According to the complaint, Basant, who was the project manager at their Mahul site, allegedly showed an inflated number of labourers and manipulated workers’ bills for their salaries. He even sold the scrap at the site and deposited less amount in the Company’s account.
Later, the parties settled the dispute and Basant approached the HC for quashing the FIR.
Basant’s advocate Abhishek Mishra informed the HC that he will repay the dues to the company.
The company’s advocate, Jitendra Mishra, informed the HC that they had no objection to the quashing of the FIR since Basant had agreed to repay the dues.
The HC quashed the FIR observing: “The continuation of prosecution of the Applicant (Basant) in the instant case will amount to an abuse of the process of Court and therefore it is in the fitness of things to quash the FIR and subject proceedings in order to secure the ends of justice.”
