JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Criminal Original Petition filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C., to call for the records in C.C.No.143 of 2016 pending on the file of the Judicial Magistrate Court, Ooty, and quash the same.)

1. This Criminal Original Petition has been filed to quash the final report in C.C.No.143 of 2016 pending on the file of the Judicial Magistrate Court, Ooty, filed for the offences under Sections 420 and 120B IPC.

2. The case of the prosecution is that the accused are running an Educational Foundation in the name of Merit International Education Foundation. The said Foundation has several institutions, including a College, namely, Merit International Institute of Technology at Ooty and they offer various courses. The accused, by giving promise that the College is affiliated to Anna University, Chennai, have lured the students to join their College. Believing the same, the de facto complainant joined B.E. Course in the said College and also completed his degree. After completing the B.E. Course, the College has not given any Certificate of Anna University, whereas, a certificate in the name of American International University has been issued and when the same was produced before the Anna University, it was informed that the said College functioning at Ooty is not all affiliated to Anna University and the Certificate issued by the said College will not be useful anywhere in India. The case of the de facto complainant is that, due to the dishonest promise and deception played initially by the accused, the de facto complainant had joined the College and wasted money, time and education. Hence, the accused are liable to be prosecuted. The prosecution has filed final report against the accused for the offences under Sections 420 and 120B IPC.

3. A1 is the Director of the Educational Foundation, A2 is the Dean of the Educational Foundation and A3 is the Executive Director of the Merit Foundation. The petitioners before this Court are A3 to A5.

4. It is the contention of the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners that the materials collected by the prosecution would not constitute any offence of cheating as against the petitioners herein/A3 to A5 and none of the witnesses have spoken anything about the present petitioners and there are no materials available on prosecution side to show that there was false promise or deception played by the accused from the very inception to lure the students to join the course. The learned Senior Counsel further contended that the students are aware of the fact that the Institution is having foreign tie-up and it had not published in their advertisement or prospectus that their Institution is recognized or affiliated to Anna University. It is the further contention of the learned Senior Counsel that the petitioner's Institution had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alagappa University, Karaikudi, to facilitate the students to get an additional qualification, and accordingly, the students were also given an opportunity to do their basic degree (UGC) for three years simultaneously through Alagappa University, Karaikudi, for which, the petitioner's Institution was authorized to conduct the classes and examination as per the instructions of the Alagappa University. Merely because the de facto complainant and few other students did not get any job after completion of their studies, they have lodged a false complaint against the petitioner's Institution. Further, in the entire materials collected by the prosecution, there are no ingredients found to attract the offences under Sections 420 and 120B IPC. Therefore, the learned Senior Counsel submitted that the entire prosecution is liable to be quashed.

5. Per contra, the learned Government Advocate (Crl. Side), appearing for the 1st respondent Police, submitted that the prosecution has collected various materials and examined several witnesses and collected various documents. Whether or not the materials collected by the prosec