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IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATHI
VENKATA JYOTHIRMAI PRATAPA, J.
Suresh Khandelwal – Petitioner
Versus
N. Mohan Naidu and Others – Respondents
Criminal Petition No. 2694 of 2020
Decided On : 07-03-2024
(A) Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 - Section 482 - Quashing of proceedings - Petitioner sought to quash proceedings for offences under Sections 341, 500 and 506 IPC - Court held that allegations under Section 500 IPC are not maintainable as per Section 199 Cr.P.C. - No wrongful restraint under Section 341 IPC established - Ingredients of criminal intimidation under Section 506 IPC not met - Proceedings quashed. (Paras 8-15)
(B) Criminal Defamation - The court reiterated that a complaint for defamation must be filed by the aggrieved party and cannot be initiated by police under Section 500 IPC. (Paras 9-10)
Facts of the case:
The petitioner, COO of Srikalahasti Pipes Limited, was accused of defamation and threats following a WhatsApp message that insulted the complainant, a Public Relation Officer at the same company.
Findings of Court:
The court found no grounds for the charges under Sections 341, 500, and 506 IPC against the petitioner, leading to the quashing of proceedings.
Issues: The main issue was whether the proceedings against the petitioner were justifiable under the alleged offences.
Ratio Decidendi: The court ruled that the allegations did not meet the necessary legal standards for the offences charged, particularly under Section 500 IPC, which requires a private complaint.
Result: Criminal Petition allowed; proceedings quashed.
ORDER :
1. The instant petition under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [for short ‘Cr.P.C.’] has been filed by the Petitioner/Accused No. 1 seeking to quash the proceedings against him in Crime No. 112 of 2020 on the file of Srikalahasti Rural Police Station, Tirupati Urban Police District, which was registered for the offences punishable under Sections 341, 500 and 506 read with 34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 [for short ‘I.P.C.’].
2. The case put up by complaint, in brief, are as follows:
(b) As such, the Complainant gave a complaint against Accused Nos.1 and 2 to the Police, based on which, a case in Crime No. 112 of 2020 was registered by Srikalahasti Rural Police for the offences under Sections 341, 500 and 506 IPC.
(c) It is relevant to extract the complaint, which reads as follows:
“I submit that, I have received a call from one of the members of the said whatsapp group on 16-06-2020 saying that Mr.Suresh Khandelwal COO Srikalahastipipes LTD has posted a lengthy message trolling me particularly about my status, caliber and effort towards the development of Srikalahasti Pipes Ltd. in an insulting, degrading way. I have went through the message which has all the false information, I felt so sad and insulting. I have received a number of calls from all the other members of the group about the message; I am very much insulted with the message posted in the Whatsapp group. Not only this message I heard so many fake news wondering in Srikalahasti about me towards the said company, I am questioned by number of persons regarding this troll and the fake obligations, which were transferring from mouth to mouth. I have suffered mental agony because of such fake news, negative publicity on me. The Message posted in What'sapp group is as follows:
Mr. Mohan Naidu has not helped for contribution of even one cent of farming land at the time of establishment of factory. When he joined, he don't even have net worth to afford a cycle, but during this collaboration with factory, he earned around 50 crores of net worth at the cost of factory, by indulging in illegal affairs.
At the time of acquisition of lands by the company, he manipulated land rices with land owners and made company to pay escalated prices by taking the benefit of difference between actual price and amount paid by the company (around 2 crores).
The above scenario happened in the acquisition of following lands having surve nos Malapaka Village-207/208/209/317-92 Acers, Chindipelli Village-256/260/261267/ 268-28 Acers.
There is also a instance where he insisting on the payment of acquisition of land having survey No. of 355 of 3.3 acers where the land is no existence.
He made company to enter into a contract of grass pillows with his Benamis and earning around 4 lakhs per month on such contracts.
To cover up all his fraudulent acts, he exercised rowdism in the premises of factory by provoking Rachaguneri villagers. He was the one who provoked villagers to attack business development head, Ramesh babu and cement plant general manager, as they were restraining his contracts.
Whenever there is a denial from the management for any of the contracts he approached for, there would be some disputes happening on coincidence in the factory. He resolves such disputes as if he is company's big person and makes his contracts get approved as a quid pro quo. Apparently what no one knows is Mohan Naidu is the one who instructs for happening of the same. Perhaps if the mana
The court ruled that allegations under Section 500 IPC are not maintainable without a private complaint, and no wrongful restraint or criminal intimidation was established against the petitioner.
The absence of specific allegations in a defamation complaint and unexplained delays in filing can warrant quashing of proceedings as abuses of process of law.
In cases of criminal defamation, the magistrate cannot direct the police to register a crime and investigate the offense under Section 500 of the IPC, as established by the judgments of the Apex Cour....
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