JUDGMENT :

VINOD DIWAKAR, J.

1. We have heard Dr. C.P. Upadhyay, along with Shri Kumar Gaurav, learned counsel for the petitioners and Shri Rajesh Kumar Madhesia, learned State Law Officer, for the State-respondents.

2. The present petitions have arisen from the impugned First Information Report dated 21.08.2023, registered as Case Crime No. 178 of 2023, under sections 409, 419, 420 IPC at Police Station Sujanganj, District Jaunpur, in which the petitioners, namely Manish Kumar Singh, Smt. Pushpa Devi, Jawahar Lal and Vinod Kumar Saroj have been arrayed as accused along with one Sanjay Kumar Chauhan - who has not come before this Court. The petitioners are aggrieved by the registration of the impugned FIR and, therefore, approached this Court with twofold prayers: (i) quashing the impugned FIR and (ii) a stay of arrest.

3. The prosecution case is that on the complaint of some public representatives, the District Administration noticed certain irregularities in constructing Amrit Sarovar in District Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh - A Central Government initiative to construct ponds in rural areas of India. On receipt of a complaint (reference may be invited to Annexure-5) of the Project Director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), District Jaunpur, a three-member committee comprising (i) Project Director, DRDA (ii) Assistant Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department (iii) Mining Inspector was constituted to look into the irregularities flagged in the preliminary enquiry. The Project Director completed the inquiry and observed that the then-concerned Secretary, Pradhan, Assistant Programme Officer (APO), Lekhakar and Rojgar Sewak were found involved in the execution of work amounting to Rs. 15,57,790/- in defiance of the provisions of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA). Based on the finding of the Inquiry Committee dated 19.08.2023, the impugned FIR was registered against the petitioners.

4. The gist of the submissions raised by the respective counsel for the petitioners are as follows; that the Project Director, DRDA, has falsely implicated the petitioners, who were inimical with Manish Kumar Singh, who had made a complaint dated 22.06.2023 to C.D.O. Jaunpur against him. The petitioners are innocent, and no offence, as alleged in the impugned FIR, is made out against the petitioners. The allegations are inherently unreliable, manufactured and have no iota of truth. He further contends that the Inquiry Committee Report dated 19.08.2023 is vitiated under the law because of the accentuate reasons: (i) all three members have not signed the report; (ii) the Inquiry Officer concluded the report within 24 hours without obtaining the signature of Assistant Engineer, who was one of the members of Inquiry Committee; (iii) no show cause notice was given to the petitioners, or no technical assistance was obtained by the Inquiry Committee besides other reasons as thus mentioned in the grounds of the writ petition.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioners further submits that: (i) the petitioner- Manish Kumar Singh- in Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 14349 of 2023 has no role in the commission of the alleged offence as his job was to supervise the work and submitting work reports to PO/BDO The petitioner has no power to forward a proposal to sanction the project; (ii) In the case of petitioner Pushpa Devi, she was the Pradhan of village Pyarepur, Block-Sujanganj, District Jaunpur, whereas, petitioner-Jawahar Lal was the Gram Rojgar Sewak- both are petitioners in Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 14783 of 2023, and has no role in the execution of the work and release of payments, (iii) Petitioner-Vinod Kumar Saroj-sole petitioner in Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 14459 of 2023 was Village Development Officer of Block Sujanganj and, as such, had no role in alleged financial and procedural irregularities.

6. Shri Suraj Kumar, learned counsel for the Caveator, has put in an appearance on behalf of the villagers the aggrie