Dharmadhikari, J.

1. RULE.

2. The Respondents waive service. By consent of parties, heard forthwith.

3. By this Writ Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India r/w Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the Petitioner is seeking quashing of CR No.3212/2011 registered with the Cyber Crime Cell, Crime Branch, Pune alleging offences punishable under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

4. The complaint alleges that one Prataprao Govindrao Pawar is Chairman of M/s Sakal Papers Private Limited. This Company is incorporated and registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. It is engaged in the business of printing and publishing news papers in the States of Maharashtra and Goa. The Company has also Website, therefore, publications have wide circulation throughout India and abroad. One Abhijeet Prataprao Pawar is Director on the Board of Directors of the said Company. One Leelatai Parulekar is also a Director and she is daughter of the founder of the said Company, namely, late Dr.Nanasaheb Parulekar.

5. It is alleged that there was function organized on 20.09.2011 to celebrate 114th Birth Anniversary of Dr.Nanasaheb Parulekar. That programme was organized at Balgandharva Rangmandir, Pune at 06:00 PM in the evening. The function was attended by high dignitaries and Mr.Prataprao Pawar was also personally present. When that programme was going on, a person i.e. the Petitioner, intending to obstruct the same and to create chaos and confusion, entered the hall although he was not an invitee. He was distributing some pamphlets. He had entered the hall after pushing several persons. The pamphlets contain the defamatory material against the said Prataprao Pawar. The Petitioner was also seen speaking in defamatory language to those present in the audience. One such pamphlet was given to the employee of the said Company, namely, Dhananjay Divakar. The said Dhananjay Divakar also saw the Petitioner in the hall and at that time, the Complainant Mr.Mahendra Pisal, General Manager of the Company, was shown this pamphlet. On reading it, he found that it contains defamatory statements and also refers to websites, namely, www.savelila.com and www.jeevraksha.org. The Petitioner was calling upon the people in the audience to view these websites.

6. On accessing those websites, the Complainant noticed that they contained several defamatory statements and material against Prataprao Pawar and whole purpose was to defame him. Thus, these are the statements made by the Petitioner and some of his associates, although these persons have no connection with the said Company or the said Leelatai Parulekar or her social work. The statements were made to malign and defame Prataprao Pawar. For all these reasons, it was alleged that they have committed the offences punishable under the aforementioned provisions.

7. In this Writ Petition, the Petitioner has alleged that he is a spirited individual working for the betterment of animals and is also the founder of the Pune Unit of People for Animals. He is also an Animal Welfare Officer (Hon) with the Animal Welfare Board of India (for short “AWBI”) under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He has also been appointed as an Animal Welfare Officer (Hon) by the Bombay High Court Committee for monitoring of Animal Welfare Laws in the State of Maharashtra. He also runs a helpline for animals that rescues around 1200 animals a year.

8. It is alleged that the Information Technology Act, 2000 was deliberately used purely to convert a non cognizable offence into a cognizable one. The Petitioner believes that though there was no case against him under the Information Technology Act, 2000, he was framed under pressure/ influence of politically well connected person to firstly get the Petitioner arrested and tortured in police custody and to harass him further if needed. It is alleged that all this was with an intention to for