IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.21776 of 2007 Dinanath Singh, Son of Late Ram Chandra Singh, Resident of Mohalla Vir Kuer Singh Colony, Hajipur, P.S. Hajipur, District Vaishali. ----------- Petitioner Versus (i) The State of Bihar. (ii) The Executive Engineer, Done Canal Division (Irrigation Dept.), At and P.O. and P.S. Ram Nagar, Dist. West Champaran. ------- Opposite Parties ----------- 6 14.9.2009 Heard Dr. Maya Nand Jha, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Prasun Kumar, learned GA-3 appearing for the State. The prayer in this application is for quashing of a First Information Report lodged at the instance of Executive Engineer, Done Canal Division (Irrigation Department), Ram Nagar in the district of West Champaran. In the First Information Report, all that has been alleged is that an embezzlement of a sum of Rs. 9,45,675/- has been committed by the petitioner in form of receiving the payment. On reading of the First Information Report, therefore, it cannot be said that the ingredient of the offence in question is not constituted. Dr. Jha, however, would however refer to a number of documents which according to him if taken into consideration would lead 2 to a conclusion that it is out and out a dispute of civil nature which is being sought to be wrecked up by way of vengeance by the informant, Engineer, in order to settle score with the petitioner, a contractor. He would also submit that the subsequent events which have taken place after lodging of the First Information Report in the year 1995 by itself would go to show that the allegation against the petitioner as with regard to not only receiving payment in question was bonafide and justified but even otherwise no criminality would be attached to the act of the petitioner in receiving such payment. Mr. Prasun Kumar, learned GA-3, on the other hand would submit that the case still is under investigation and the petitioner can produce all those documents by way of his defence which can be looked into by the police in order to come to a correct conclusion. He would also submit that since the payment undoubtedly was made to the petitioner with the collusion of the engineer, the police has also to find out as to whether the payment made to the petitioner was on account of any 3 role of the alleged engineer. This Court, after considering the aforementioned submissions and keeping in view the ratio of the Apex Court in the case of State of Bihar & Anr. Vs. J.A.C. Saldanna & Ors. reported in AIR 1980 SC 326 at the moment would refrain from quashing the First Information Report but then the aforementioned submissions on behalf of the parties would require certain directions to be given to the Investigating Agency for completing the investigation within a time frame. Accordingly, this application is being disposed of with the following directions:- (i) The petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer within a period of one month from today and would produce all those papers which according to him would make the Investigating Agency believe and conclude that no offence whatsoever was committed by him. (ii) The Investigating Agency after looking into all those documents and statement of the petitioner would proceed to investigate the case from the angle as 4 to whether the payment in question was made to the petitioner on account of any collusive/conspiracy of the engineer of the Department and if so, who were such persons. (iii) In the event, the police would find any material to file a charge-sheet, it must do so against the persons found to be prima-facie guilty within a period of six months from the date of appearance of the petitioner before the Investigating Agency. (iv) For the period of seven months from today, no coercive step shall be taken against the petitioner who is already on bail in the present case. Rsh (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)