Foreign residency, citizenship, and acquittal of co-accused can be grounds for quashing criminal proceedings.

JUDGMENT

Arvind Singh Sangwan, J. (Oral) - On 13.09.2018, the following order was passed by this Court:-

"Prayer in this petition is for quashing of FIR No.262 dated 01.08.2006 registered under Sections 8, 21, 24, 25, 29, 60 and 61 of the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (in short 'the NDPS Act') at Police Station Nakodar, District Jalandhar.

Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner is residing abroad since 2005 and presently, he is a Canadian citizen. It is further submitted that on the date of registration of the FIR, the petitioner was not in India and in this regard, he has relied upon the entries made in the passport of the petitioner (Annexures P5 and P6).

Counsel for the petitioner has also submitted that the name of the petitioner is Jatinder Singh @ Lakha whereas in the FIR, he is named as Lakhwinder Singh @ Lakha and due to this reason, the petitioner was not aware about his involvement in the present FIR.

Counsel for the petitioner has further argued that the petitioner was later on declared as proclaimed offender and in the meantime, 04 of his co-accused namely Mandeep Singh, Hardeep Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Dharampal faced the full length trial before the Judge, Special Court, Jalandhar, who vide order dated 31.03.2014 (Annexure P4) acquitted them of the charge observing as under:-

"....Accordingly when the case in hand is examined in view of what has been laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in its pronouncements, it is found that prosecution has no case at all what to talk of establishing its charges beyond doubts. All the witnesses who have been examined by the prosecution in order to prove the circumstances connecting accused with the conspiracy and commission of crime have failed to support its case and have turned hostile. They were then subjected to their lengthy cross-examination by the Addl. P.P. but nothing favourable and supporting to the prosecution case could be extracted from them. The prosecution thus failed to connect the accused with charges and commission of offence. It also could not be proved on record if any offence was even committed. No evidence came forth showing if there was a conspiracy what to talk of accused being party to that. No investigation rather was conducted in that direction to unearth any conspiracy and the fact if it existed even. As conspiracy itself remained unproved to be thee, no question could arise regarding involvement of accused in that. The present one is the case where there is no investigation conducted to secure circumstances forming any chain of events connecting accused with the charges. The investigation conducted in the case is not only defective and improper but is highly lacking also. It could not be shown or proven that the recovered vehicles were used or if those were even owned by the accused. Likewise recovery of a diary from accused Mandeep Singh is of no consequences as it failed to prove anything against accused or any investigation was done with regard to its contents. Rather PW3 Investigating Officer in his cross-examination categorically admitted that none of the vehicles were owned by accused Mandeep Singh nor any recovery whatsoever was effected from his possession. No recover of any illegal substance was effected from the vehicles. Not to speak of missing links and gaps in the chain of events, no event and its taking place has even been proved.

11. As an outcome of above discussion, this Court finds no grounds to conclude about the guilt of the accused or if the prosecution has been able to prove its charges. They are accordingly acquitted of the charges framed against them. File be consigned to the record room."

Counsel for the petitioner has further argued that subsequently one another accused namely Bohar Singh, who was also declared as proclaimed offender was arrested and he also faced the full length trial and was also acquitted by the Judge, Special Court, Jalandhar vide judgment dated 15.11.2017 (Annexu