The principle of double jeopardy and the jurisdiction of the court to consider the defense document and exercise the discharge petition.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Criminal Revision filed under Section 397 r/w 401 of the Criminal Procedure Code, to call for the records to the impugned order dated 04.03.2023 passed in Crl.M.P.No.3471 of 2022 in C.C.No.909 of 2019 on the file of the learned Judicial Magistrate No.I, Madurai and set aside the same as illegal.)

1.The Accused Nos.2 and 3 in C.C.No.909 of 2019 filed this Criminal Revision case challenging the dismissal of discharge petition dated 04.03.20223, filed by them in Crl.M.P.No.3471 of 2022 in C.C.No.909 of 2019 on the file of the learned Judicial Magistrate No.I, Madurai.

2. The petitioners arrayed as accused Nos.2 and 3 in Crime No.12 of 2011 on the file of the District Crime Branch, Madurai, registered for the offence punishable under Sections 406, 420 and 506(i) IPC. According to the petitioners, earlier A1 was the President of the Sarvodhaya Trust. The said Trust was registered on 27.02.1996 at the Sub-Registrar Office, Usilampatti. The managing president of the said trust is A1-Gurunathan. A2 is the wife of the said Gurunathan and A3 is the sister of the said Gurunathan. They filed the discharge petition before the Court below and made the following submissions:

2.1.1.The respondent/defacto complainant is running “Re-Life-Trust” a society aimed to provide relief to blind deaf and Dumb, mentally retarded persons, differently abled persons and poor widow. All the above persons became the member of the said trust.

2.1.2. The said trust was registered on 27.02.1996 and running the same through the active participation of the first petitioner, second petitioner, Mrs.Ambika, Rudharapoosari, and Mrs.P.V.Lakshmi and Gurunathan. They are arrayed as a accused in Crime No.12 of 2011 for the alleged offence under Section 120(b), 406, 420, 506(i) of IPC with the following allegations:

2.1.3.They are collected deposit from 152 members of the defacto complainant's members trust namely the blind deaf and Dumb, mentally retarded persons, differently abled persons and poor widow. Upon the false promise, to obtain loan for minimum interest for the development to the tune of Rs.8,86,050/- and failed to whether repay or arrange loan. Therefore, the petitioner and the other accused cheated the poor blind deaf and Dumb, mentally retarded persons, differently abled persons and poor widow. The investigating agency conducted the investigation and filed a final report before the learned Judicial Magistrate No.I, Madurai, and the same was taken on file in C.C.No.909 of 2019. Thereafter, they filed the discharge petition on the ground that earlier a case was registered Usilampatti Police station, the case was registered for the same occurrence and the same was ended into acquittal in C.C.No.130 of 2012. Therefore, the present C.C.No. 909 of 2019 is hit by the Article 20 of the Constitution of India and Section 300 of the Cr.P.C., The Investigating Agency in earlier case, itself collected all the materials and produced before the learned Judicial Magistrate No.I, Usilampatti and the same was taken on file in C.C.No.130 of 2012 and the learned Judicial Magistrate No-I, Usilampatti, after analysing the evidence, acquitted the accused, namely, the petitioners and other accused.

3. Per contra, the learned Additional Public Prosecutor as well as the defacto complainant submitted that in the earlier case, the case ended in acquittal after recording the compromise, that too, to the minimum number of depositors. Subsequently, complaint was given by the different depositors and execution of the scheme was different. In the earlier case, all witnesses turned hostile on account of their settlement. So, that said acquittal cannot be treated as the double jeopardy and not hit by the Article 20 of Constitution of India and Section 300 of Cr.P.C.

4. This Court have considered the rival submissions made by the learned counsel appearing on either side and perused the materials available on record and the impugned order.

5. A