ORDER :

1. By way of the present petition filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) the petitioner has approached this court with grievance that pursuant to FIR (bearing No. 314/2021) lodged against one Suresh Kumar, the Investigating Officer is investigating and harassing the petitioner, inter-alia, alleging that Suresh Kumar and petitioner with intention to commit impersonation, have got the REET Examination forms filled in such a manner that on the form submitted by Suresh Kumar, petitioner's photograph was affixed.

2. In response to the allegation of impersonation, learned counsel for the petitioner clarified that Suresh Kumar who hails from the same village, as the petitioner, filled his application form from the same E-Mitra of the village and inadvertently, in his application form he affixed photograph of the petitioner.

3. Thereafter, said Suresh Kumar carried out an online application correction and affixed correct photo on his application form which was duly changed and the admit card which was earlier issued to Suresh Kumar with photograph of the petitioner (Laxman Kumar), was corrected and photograph of Suresh Kumar was affixed on the newly issued admit card to said Suresh Kumar.

4. Learned counsel argued that the FIR lodged against Suresh Kumar is based on misconstrued facts, since the improper admit card itself has been duly got corrected by Suresh Kumar himself from the REET authorities.

5. While submitting that no offence is committed even by Suresh Kumar, Mr. Ashok Upadhyay, learned counsel for the petitioner highlighted that so far as form filled by the present petitioner (Laxman Kumar) is concerned, the same indisputably, bears petitioner's own photograph and thus no offence can be said to have been committed by the petitioner.

6. It is also asserted that as a matter of fact, the petitioner so also Suresh Kumar appeared in the REET Examination with their own corrected admit cards and, therefore, it cannot be said to be a case of attempt to mislead, cheat or impersonate.

7. Mr. Gaurav Singh, learned Public Prosecutor on the other hand submitted that the Investigation is under way and the Investigating Officer had written a letter to the Coordinator, REET Examination, who vide his letters dated 28.02.2022 and 03.03.2022, has informed that the Board has not received any correction application submitted by Suresh Kumar or Laxman Kumar.

8. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the case diary.

9. On perusal of the record this Court finds:

(i) The petitioner (Laxman Kumar) submitted his online application form vide form No. 71967935 on 03.02.2021 vide transaction ID-21020387933285 at 16:58:22 with his own photograph.

(ii) Suresh Kumar submitted his online application form vide form No. 71956626 on 03.02.2021 vide transaction ID-21020387928428 at 16:27:25 with photograph of Laxman (hereinafter referred to as “the first form”).

(iii) Suresh Kumar filed another application form or ID No. 72367739 on 08.02.2021 vide transaction ID-21020488106510 at 19:27:27 with his own photograph (hereinafter referred to as “the second form”).

10. It is pertinent to note that after investigation, the Investigating Officer has found said Suresh Kumar to have committed offences under Section 419, 420, 465, 468 of the IPC and Section 3/6 of the Rajasthan Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1992.

11. As a matter of fact, there are copies of two provisional admit cards issued to Suresh Kumar with the same Roll No. (221139081). The first one has been issued with respect to application ID No. 71956626 and 72367739 with photograph of Laxman, whereas the second admit card with reference to Application ID-72367739 alone with the same Roll No. (221139081) has been issued to Suresh with his own photograph. Except for the photographs and reference of application ID's both the admit cards are identical. Though it is not clear from the record that which one was issued earli