Paridhi Arya
Published on June 3, 2022 at 14:10 IST
Justice Samir J Dave of Gujarat High Court dismissed the plea made by former Assistant Solicitor General and Senior Advocate IH Syed of quashing the criminal proceedings against him in extortion case.
The Court denied any protection from coercive step of police and to grant any interim relief.
“No case is made out to quash the FIR / criminal proceedings at this stage while exercising the powers under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)…… Even prayer made with regard to stay the criminal proceedings and/or no coercive steps be taken against the petitioner are also to be rejected,” the order said.
The Public Prosecutor informed the Court that the investigation is not complete and the Petitioner is not participating in the same, on which the Court found it early to consider the Accused innocent.
“Merely because the petitioner is an advocate is no ground not to permit the investigating agency into the allegations made against him and to quash the criminal proceedings at the threshold”, the Court stated.
The Accused was apprehended to be arrested for the offence of extortion, criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement.
The plea for Anticipatory Bail was earlier denied by High Court on May 30. The FIR states that the previous FIR against the complainant was quashed by High Court. The Accused had held a meeting with the complainant and forced him to sign the documents.
The Petitioner contended that the FIR was filed to take revenge and malign the reputation of the Petitioner.
The Court observed that the offences alleged are serious and if found true then it will be of a great concern as Senior Advocate should be honest and have knowledge of law.
“The Investigating Officer must be given some reasonable time to investigate the allegations and to find out the veracity of the truth”, the Court said.
The Court referred the Supreme Court judgment of Neeharika Infrastructure v State of Maharashtra where the power held by the Court of quashing criminal proceeding need to be used sparingly and in rare of the rarest cases, it is therefore not justified to question the reliability or genuineness of allegations.
The Court dismissed the petition and stated that the case is not fit for quashing criminal proceedings.