The court emphasized the importance of evidence and material to establish the involvement of the accused in the alleged offenses, and the need to prevent the abuse of the legal process.

JUDGMENT :

Heard the parties.

2. This criminal miscellaneous petition has been filed invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. with a prayer to quash the order dated 31.01.2022 passed by learned Judicial Magistrate-1st Class, Palamau at Daltonganj in connection with Patan P.S. Case No.38 of 2019 corresponding to G.R. No.485 of 2022 whereby and where under cognizance for the offence punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code has been taken against the petitioner differing with the Final Form submitted by the Investigating Officer of the case, after finding prima facie case to proceed against the petitioner as well as the entire criminal proceeding arising out of said case and the said case is now pending in the court of learned Judicial Magistrate-1st Class, Palamau at Daltonganj.

3. The brief fact of the case is that the petitioner is the partner of M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. which was awarded a tender for executing the work of Extension, Restoration and Modernization of Jinjoyi Irrigation Scheme under the District of Palamau. It is alleged that though the said M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. was having experience certificate of carrying out the work of Rs.3,40,00,000/- but the experience certificate submitted by the said M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. purportedly issued by the office of the Executive Engineer, Water Resources Division-I, Ambikapur showed that M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. has done the work worth Rs.18,40,00,000/-; hence, it is alleged that the same was done by way of forgery to enable M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. to be eligible to participate in the said tender and subsequently the tender was awarded in favour of M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. and after completion of the work, full payment has been made to the said M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. During the course of investigation it transpired that the informant approached the petitioner and the other partners of the said M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. for participating in the said tender and the relevant documents of M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. were handed over to the informant by the petitioner in a pen-drive and the informant with an intention to implicate the petitioner and co-accused persons, edited and interpolated the documents given by the instant petitioner namely Santosh Kumar Choudha to him and replaced the amount of work done by the said M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. from Rs.3,40,00,000/- to Rs.18,40,00,000/-. Police after investigation of the case submitted Final Form and did not send up the petitioner and the co-accused of the said case for trial for lack of evidence against them. The learned Magistrate vide its order dated 31.01.2022 has observed that the instant petitioner namely Santosh Kumar Choudha handed over the documents of M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. and he is the beneficiary of the work allotted to M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. and it is a matter of trial as to who has fabricated the document but the conduct of the accused creates suspicion and went on to find prima facie case for the offences punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and also found prima facie case to proceed against the petitioner of the instant Cr.M.P.

4. Mr. R. S. Mazumdar- learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the instant petitioner is the only active partner in the said M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co. and the petitioner No.1 of Cr.M.P. No.1003 of 2022 namely Sandhya Choudha is the wife of the instant petitioner namely Santosh Kumar Choudha and she is only a sleeping partner. It is next submitted that the informant taking the advantage of the faith of the instant petitioner namely Santosh Kumar Choudha, submitted online tender after manipulating some papers and also fraudulently shown himself as the Manager of the said M/s. S.S. Infrastructure Co.. It is then submitted that because of the illegal activity of the informant/complainant as the informant/complainant has misapp