JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Petition filed under Article 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to call for the records in Crime No.175 of 2020, on the file of the Koodankulam Police Station, Tirunelveli and quash the same, insofar as the petitioner is concerned.)

The petitioner, a Secondary Grade Teacher working in a Government Higher Secondary School, has been slapped with a First Information Report in Crime No.175 of 2020, on the file of the Koodankulam Police Station, Tirunelveli District. The petitioner, who is arrayed as fifth accused in the aforesaid crime number, filed this petition to quash the proceedings pending against him.

2. The case in Crime No.175 of 2020 was registered by the respondent Police on the complaint of the Sub-Inspector of Police, Koodankulam Police Station, as against this petitioner and four others for the offence under Section 12 of the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act, 1930 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’). The case of the prosecution is that the complainant, on his rounds along with two other Constables on 05.06.2020, around 06.30 pm, near Kaduthula Junction, found the petitioner and four others playing cards near a thorny bush and therefore, he arrested the accused, r