HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G. KRISHNA MOHAN REDDY CRIMINAL PETITION No.6921 OF 2008 ORDER: This Criminal Petition is filed by the Petitioner/Accused No.2 (For short, ‘A-2’) under Section 482 Cr.P.C., seeking to quash proceedings in Crime No.294 of 2007, pending on the file of Station House Officer, Abid Road Police Station, Hyderabad, registered for offence punishable under Section 420 I.P.C. 2. Whereas the Petitioner is the Accused No.2, the Respondent No.2 is the De-facto complainant in the F.I.R. For the sake of convenience, I refer the parties as arrayed in the F.I.R. 3. The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows : The De-facto complainant approached Smt. Kavitha Reddy, A-1 in this case who was the Project Director of M/s. Happy Estates Private Limited (Presently M/s. City Square Enterprises private Limited). After due discussions and negotiations between them, Agreement of sale was executed by A-1 in the Capacity of Chairman and Managing Director of M/s. Happy Estates Private Limited for Plot No.333 consisting 550 Sq. Yards at May Fair County Scheme, Hyderabad and Plot No.959 consisting of 200 Sq. Yards at Bangalore in favour of Baby Sonam and Plot No.168 admeasuring 550 Sq. Yards at May Fair County Scheme Hyderabad and Plot No.958 consisting of 200 Sq. Yards in ‘Green City’ at Bangalore in favour of Baby Namya Gupta. The de-facto complainant paid the total consideration for the above said plots but, in spite of repeated requests A-2 did not register the plots in favour of the de-facto complainant and also shifted their office to a different place without giving any information to the de-facto complainant and as such cheated the de-facto complainant. Hence A-2 is liable to be punished for the alleged offence. 4. It is the contention of learned counsel for A-2 that the allegations made by the de-facto complainant even taken as true, do not disclose that the offence of cheating was made out and there is some difficulty in the registration of the plots as a claim was made that it was a Government land and steps are being taken by him to get it clarified from the Government and further to get the lands regularized a communication was also made to the de-facto complainant in that regard and in fact a s a goodwill gesture A-2 offered 2,200 Sq. Yards as against the de-facto complainant’s claim for 1,500 Sq. Yards which is being considered and further there has been no dishonest intention on the part of A-2 in the matter and hence the entire proceedings are liable to be quashed. 5. Therefore, the point for consideration is whether there are sufficient grounds to quash the proceedings as prayed? 6. The allegations only show that there was some avoidance on the part of A-2 to complete the remaining part of the contract. In order to attract Section 420 I.P.C. there should be clear evidence of inducing the de-facto complainant to part with his property with a dishonest intention at the outset. 7. Section 420 I.P.C. contemplates : “Whoever cheats and thereby dishonestly induces the person deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to make, alter or destroy the whole or any part of a valuable security, or anything which is signed or sealed, and which is capable of being converted into valuable security, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine”. 8. So, there are no grounds of cheating as provided in section 420 I.P.C. It appears to be purely a civil litigation. It is pertinent to note here that this is not a case of conveying the property to another person for the purpose of causing wrongful loss to the de-facto complainant and wrongful gain to himself (A-2) or executing a false document. If A-2 fails to honour the Agreements of sale as stated above, the de-facto complainant is always at liberty to approach concerned Civil Court seeking for specific performance of the agreement of sale. Hence, the Criminal Petition is to be allowed and the proceedings are to be quashed. Accordingly, the Criminal Petition is allowed quashing the entire proceedings in Crime No.294 of 2007, pending on the file of Station House Officer, Abid Road Police Station, Hyderabad, registered for offence punishable under Section 420 I.P.C. ___________________________ G. KRISHNA MOHAN REDDY, J Dated: 28-09-2011. Dsh. THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G. KRISHNA MOHAN REDDY 279 CRIMINAL PETITION No.6921 OF 2008 September, 28, 2011 DSH