IMPORTANT POINT
Direction for CBI investigation – High Courts should direct for CBI investigation only in cases where material prima facie discloses something calling for investigation by CBI and it should not be done in a routine manner or on the basis of some vague allegations – Bald allegations are not sufficient to handover case to CBI, without any kind of substantiation.

JUDGMENT :

SUDHANSHU DHULIA, J.

1. Permission to file SLP granted. Leave granted.

2. The facts taken into account in this order are from Criminal Appeal arising out of SLP (Crl) No.8403/2024 by considering it to be the lead matter. The appellant before this Court was made an accused in an FIR No.215/2022 at P.S Sector 20, Panchkula (Haryana) under Section 120B, 177, 406, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506 of IPC. This FIR has been lodged on the basis of information given by complainant-respondent no.3 (Jagbir Singh) where it has been alleged that the appellant impersonated himself as an Inspector General (IG) of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and threatened the complainant to transfer Rs.1,49,00,000 into the appellant’s account. As per this FIR, the complainant, who is in the business of pharmaceuticals, was coerced by the appellant to do business with the appellant’s associates and friends including one Dr. Komal Khanna (co-accused and appellant in criminal appeal arising out of Diary No.33284/2024) and money was extorted from the complainant’s firms by putting undue pressure on the complainant.

3. The FIR itself was filed on 29.10.2022. The complainant then filed a petition under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (‘CrPC’) before the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking transfer of investigation from the civil police of the State of Haryana to the Central Bureau of Investigation (for short ‘CBI’). This petition (under Section 482 CrPC) filed by respondent no.3, has been allowed by the High Court vide impugned order dated 17.05.2024 where the learned Single Judge directed that the investigation in the case be handed over to CBI. Aggrieved by the same, the appellant who is the main accused in the FIR is before us.

4. Prior to the registration of the abovementioned FIR, on 06.01.2022, an earlier FIR being FIR No.01/2022 at P.S CID- Bharari, Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) was filed against appellant, which, the appellant alleges, was on the same issue and though the name of the present complainant is not there in the earlier FIR as complainant but, according to the present appellant, that too was initiated at the behest of the present complainant. The appellant argued that this FIR in Himachal Pradesh is on similar allegations alleging that the appellant, by impersonating himself as an IG (IB), had extorted lacs of rupees from industrialists including the complainant /respondent no.3. For the quashing of this FIR (No.01/2022), the appellant had filed a petition under Section 482 of CrPC before the High Court of Himachal Pradesh. The Himachal Pradesh High Court vide order dated 10.01.2025 has quashed FIR No.01/2022 against the appellant. In this order dated 10.01.2025, Himachal Pradesh High Court had observed that the FIR in Shimla was registered on the basis of some secret information and the High Court further made observations that the witnesses had made statements before police under Section 161 CrPC in order to settle some disputes with the appellant, which are only civil in nature. Consequently, Himachal Pradesh High Court quashed the FIR since the filing of the FIR itself seemed to be an abuse of the process of law.

5. We have gone through both the FIRs. We may not agree with the contentions of the appellant that the two FIRs, the one which has already been quashed and the second in which the investigation has now been handed over to the CBI vide the impugned order, are broadly similar in nature. They relate to different incidents and may have a different cause of action though some incidents narrated in one do relate to the other, but what is difficult for us to comprehend is that when the present FIR itself was filed on 22.10.2022 and the investigation itself was in its initial stage, then what was the burning hurry for the complainant to approach the High Court under Section 482 CrPC as early as January 2023 seeking an investigation by CBI instead of local police. Vague and bald allegations were made in the Section 482 CrPC petition such