The court applied the principles governing quashing of FIRs and held that it would be premature to quash the FIR at this stage, and the cognizance of the offence is yet to be taken by the Trial Court.

JUDGMENT

Swarana Kanta Sharma, J. The petitioner has filed the present petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("Cr.P.C.") seeking quashing of FIR bearing no. 108/2021, registered at Police Station Lodhi Colony, South District, New Delhi, for the offences punishable under Sections 420/188/120B/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("IPC") read with Section 3 of Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 ("E.D. Act") and read with Sections 3(7) of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 ("E.C. Act").

2. The brief facts of the present case, as per prosecution, are that on 25.04.2021 at around 7:30 p.m., ASI Prakash had received secret information through one source that two persons, namely Akash Verma, i.e., the petitioner and co-accused Likhit Gupta will be present at India Habitat Center, Lodhi Colony, New Delhi, at around 8:30 p.m. in a Honda City Car, Golden Brown in colour, bearing number DL 4 CAZ 8788, and if a raid is conducted, the said accused persons can be caught possessing Remdesivir Injections. Upon receiving the information, a raiding team was formed and was deployed at the spot. The aforesaid car was stopped, in which the petitioner was found driving the vehicle, and the co-accused was sitting adjacent to him. After conducting the search, two (02) Remdesivir injections were found in the trousers of co-accused Likhit Gupta, which were packed in two separate boxes. On both boxes, it was written, "Remdesivir for injection 100mg/vial Cipremi Lyophilized for Single user only for IV use only for use in India; not for export, Cipla". On further searching the vehicle, two more Remdesivir Injections were found in the car's dashboard. Upon inquiring, the accused persons failed to produce doctor's prescriptions and stated that they would sell these injections for Rs.70,000/- each. During detailed interrogation, both the accused admitted that one Anuj Jain had supplied them with the said injections at higher rates, and after purchasing the same from Anuj, they were supposed to sell the injections at higher rates to those in dire need. After receiving the said information, a raid was conducted on the address of Anuj Jain as provided by the accused persons and during the raid, three Remdesivir Injections were recovered from the possession of Anuj Jain. The packaging of these injections was identical to the ones found in the car, as recovered from the petitioner herein and co-accused Likhit Gupta.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner states that a case under Section 420 IPC is not made out since the petitioner did not induce anyone nor any ingredients of Section 420 is made out from the FIR filed in the present case. Learned counsel for the petitioner also states that an offence under Section 188 IPC is also not made out since for committing an offence under Section 188, there has to be essentially a complaint under Section 195(1) (a) of Cr.P.C. It is further stated by learned counsel for the petitioner that an offence under Section 3(7) of the E. C. Act is also not made out since the petitioner was not dealing with production, supply and distribution etc., of essential commodities i.e. Remdesivir injection. Furthermore, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that there is no case made out under Section 3 of the E. D. Act against the petitioner since the essential ingredients of the section were not made out. Reliance has been placed on the following decisions on behalf of petitioner: Murari Lal Gupta v. Goti Singh, (2005) 13 SCC 699; Anil Mahajan v. Bhor Industries Limited, (2005) 10 SCC 228; Ajay Mitra v. State of M.P., (2003) 3 SCC 11; ALPIC Finance Limited v. Sadasivan & Another, (2001) 3 SCC 513; Hridaya Ranjan P.D. Verma & Ors. v. State of Bihar, (2004) 4 SCC 168 and Kailash Kumar Agarwalla v. State of Assam, 2004(2) GLT 347.

4. Per contra, learned APP for the State submits that present offence is a serious one, that too, committed during the most testing time for the country. Learned APP for the State also stat