IMPORTANT POINT
The judgment establishes the principle that filing successive FIRs for the same incident can be an abuse of the process of the court and may warrant the quashing of criminal proceedings.

1. By this common judgment, it is proposed to dispose of Criminal Petition No. 1193/2022 as well as Criminal Petition No. 1205/2022as the incidents involved in both cases are common and the offence in both the cases was allegedly committed, on 29.09.2020, by the present petitioner against Ms. Jasmin Begum Laskar who is the respondent No. 2 of Criminal Petition No. 1193/2022.

2. Heard Mr. K.A. Mazumder, learned counsel for the petitioner in both the Criminal Petitions. Also heard Mr. A.M. Barbhuiya, learned counsel for the respondent No. 2 in both the Criminal Petition as well as Mr. D. Das, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, Assam, who has appeared for the respondent No. 1.

3. During the course of hearing of both the Criminal Petitions which were heard jointly by this court, it has come to the light that for the incident which was alleged to have committed on 29.09.2020 by the present petitioner against one Jasmin Begum Laskar, who is the respondent No. 2 in Criminal Petition No. 1193/2022, three separate criminal cases were registered at different points of time against the present petitioner.

4. In Criminal Petition No. 1205/2022, the petitioner has approached this court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 seeking quashing and setting aside of the criminal proceedings in G.R. Case No. 2046/2020 corresponding to Hailakandi P.S. Case No. 845/2020 as well as the charge-sheet No. 73/2021 dated 27.03.2021, which was filed in connection with the said case.

5. On the other hand, the Criminal Petition No. 1193/2022 has been registered under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on an application under the said provision, by the petitioner, seeking quashing and setting aside of the criminal proceedings emanating from the complaint case filed by the respondent No. 2 of the Criminal Petition No. 1205/2022, which was registered as C.R. Case No. 741/2020. The said complaint petition was forwarded to the Officer-In-Charge of Hailakandi Police Station with a direction by Judicial Magistrate First Class Hailakandi by its order dated 30.01.2021 to register the said complaint as an FIR and to investigate the case. On receipt of the said complaint, the Hailakandi P.S. Case No. 189/2021 was registered (corresponding to G.R. Case No. 521/2021) under Section 384/365/323/406/420/376/511 of the Indian Penal Code and ultimately, on completion of the investigation, charge sheet was laid bearing charge sheet No. 231/2021 dated 22.06.2021 under Section 376/420 of the Indian Penal Code. The petitioner has also prayed for setting aside and quashing of the said charge sheet as well as the proceedings of G.R. Case No. 521/2021 corresponding to Hailakandi P.S. Case No. 189/2021.

6. Out of the three criminal cases which were instituted against the present petitioner in relation to the incident which had occurred on 29.09.2020, the first case, that is Hailakandi P.S. Case No. 814/2020 was registered under Section 366/34 of the Indian Penal Code on filing of an FIR, on 30.09.2020, by the respondent No. 2 of Criminal Petition No. 1205/2022, namely, Anisul Islam Choudhury, before the Officer-In-Charge of Hailakandi Police Station, inter alia, alleging that on 29.09.2020, the petitioner along with three others had abducted the wife of the first informant, namely, Jasmin Begum Laskar, and their two-years-old child.

7. During the course of investigation of Hailakandi P.S. Case No. 814/2020, Ms. Jasmin Begum Laskar, (respondent No. 2 of Criminal Petition No. 1193/2022), had given her statement before the Judicial Magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, on 06.10.2020, and in the said statement, she had stated, inter-alia, that her husband, namely, Anisul Islam Choudhury, (respondent No. 2 of Criminal Petition No. 1205/2022), used to torture her physically and mentally, continuously. She had also stated that the respondent No. 2 of Criminal Petition No. 1205/2022, namely, Anisul Islam Choudhury, had pronou