Mumbai: The Bombay High Court recently gave the state a “last chance” to trace the missing first information report (FIR) and chargesheet of a 2006 case lodged against a city businessman.
“We are facing a peculiar situation which has shocked our judicial conscience,” said Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Rajesh Patil in the Jan 8 order.
They heard a petition by the businessman, a resident of Andheri (W) resident to quash the FIR registered against him by Oshiwara police station under IPC for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means.
His petition said on his application for renewal of a passport, in Aug 2016 he received an objection letter from the passport authority citing a pending criminal case before an Andheri magistrate. Thereafter, he tried to search the case details.
He filed an application before the magistrate court for renewal of his passport. The police replied that as per the record, a chargesheet was filed against the accused on May 5, 2007.
In his Feb 2020 order, the magistrate took note of the judicial clerk’s report that there was no criminal case pending against the man in the court’s record. He permitted renewal of the passport for 10 years subject to the condition that the applicant shall not leave India without the permission of the court. After the man moved HC, he was permitted to travel abroad.
In his petition to quash the FIR, he said he is “innocent and has not committed any offence whatsoever and the allegations levelled against him are totally false and concocted.”
Prosecutor Jayesh Yagnik submitted that the “director general of police is presently looking into the matter.”
The petitioner’s advocates, Ajay Dube and Ashish Dubey, pointed out that the investigation to trace the FIR, chargesheet, and the case papers is going on since 2019.
Yagnik also submitted a Jan 8 communication received from the senior inspector of Oshiwara police station. It informed that “neither the FIR, nor the chargesheet, nor the case papers from the …court are traceable” and the search is being monitored by the senior administrative officer, police commissioner’s office, and the desk officer of DGP’s office. In view of this, the judges granted the state time till Feb 7 “to investigate into this entire issue and bring before us the relevant documents.”