The petitioners are the accused in Sessions Case No.35 of 2011 pending before the Sessions court at Baramati. The said case is in respect of an offence punishable under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 34 thereof. The allegations against the petitioners has found in Column No.16 of the printed proforma of the Police report is as under:

Translation of the above in English would be thus:

"That the accused persons conspired to harass the husband of the first informant because he had formed a Union, and that the husband of the first informant was from time to time threatened that he would be removed from the job and harassed and that in order to harass him, deliberately he was transferred to Haryana, thereby causing mental torture to him and thus by making him impossible to live, instigated him to commit suicide by consuming some poisonous substance. Therefore, the accused have committed an offence punishable under Section 306 read with Section 34 of IPC."

2. The petitioners, being aggrieved by the initiation of the criminal proceedings against them, have approached this court by the present petition, invoking the jurisdiction of this court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India and Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ("the Code"), and praying that the criminal proceedings pending against them vide the said criminal case, may be quashed and set aside.

3. I have heard Mr.Niteen Pradhan, the learned Senior advocate for the petitioners. I have heard Ms.R.M.Gadhvi, the learned APP for the State. Nobody appears for the respondent no.2. The record shows that she has been duly served with the notice of this petition, for final disposal. Under the circumstances, I am not inclined to adjourn the hearing of the petition, only because the respondent no.2 is not present.

With the assistance of the learned counsel, I have gone through the entire police report under Section 173(2)(i) of the Code, on the basis of which the petitioners are being prosecuted.

4. As the facts disclosed in Column No.16 of the Police report, reproduced above, are not sufficient to understand the nature of the prosecution case, the same can be ascertained from the First Information Report (FIR) and the statements recorded during investigation may be stated here:

One Dattatray Gund was working as a Machine Operator in BilTech Building Elements Ltd., Village Bundelwadi, District Pune. He had some disputes with the Management of the said company. He had complained that no primary facilities were provided at the work place. Because of the complaints made by him, he was being threatened from time to time, by the officers of the said company. He was being denied of his Privilege leave. Once he had fallen down while on duty and sustained a fracture, but at that time also, he was given only one day's leave. He was not taken to the dispensary also. The workers in the company therefore, formed a Union and the said Dattatray Gund was made the President of the said Union. Since Dattatray Gund started voicing the grievances of the labour through the Union, the petitioners who are the officers of the said company, started harassing him more.

As the said Dattatray Gund was taking an active interest in the Union activities, he and the Vice President of the Union, one Mandge, were suddenly transferred to the Company's unit at Palwal, Haryana.

Dattatray Gund approached the Industrial Court, Pune, by filing a complaint under the provisions of Maharashtra Recognition of Trade Union and Prevention of Unfair Labour Practices Act, 1971, challenging his transfer; but did not get any interim relief from the Industrial court. The company insisted that he would have to go to Haryana. As the physical and mental torture caused to him by the petitioners, who were the officers of the said company, became unbearable to Dattatray Gund, he committed suicide on 16.6.2010, by consuming some poison.

On 21.6.2010, Smt. Diksha, wife of Dattatray Gund (Responde