S.L. Jain, J.

FF

1. Invoking extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as the 'Code') the petitioners have filed this petition for quashing the First Information Report (hereinafter referred to as the 'FIR') registered as Crime No. 18/01 dated 8-1-2001 in police station Govindpura, Distt. Bhopal for the offences punishable under section 420 read with sections 34 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as the 'Indian Penal Code')

2. Facts leading to filing of this petition succinctly narrated are thus :

i. The petitioner No. 1 was a company registered under the Indian Companies Act having its registered office at 502, Veer Savarkar Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai. From 24-11-1999, the Company is known as Georges Beverages India Pvt. Ltd. and has its registered office at 13, Silk House, 630, Shankar Seth Road, Mumbai. The company having sold its brands to a subsidiary of Coca Cola Company is currently not engaged in any business. At the time of the alleged commission of offences the Company was engaged in the business of manufacturing and sale of syrups which were used in the manufacture of certain non-alcoholic beverages sold in India under various brand names.

ii. At the time of alleged commission of the offence, the second to fifth petitioners were office bearers in the first petitioner's Company and were the Chairman, Finance Director, Managing Director and General Manager Finance respectively.

iii. Sometime in the month of November, 2000, a Criminal Complaint came to be filed by one Sanjiva Bottling Company Pvt. Ltd. through its Director Rajiv Mehta in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Bhopal alleging the commission of offences under sections 420/34 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code by the petitioners.

iv. It was alleged in the complaint that the first petitioner had failed to make a payment of Rs. 2,43,794.00 (Two lacs forty three thousand and seven hundred ninety four only) to one M/s Universal Glass Ltd, which had supplied bottles to Sanjiva Bottling for the said amount. And thus cheated Sanjiva Bottling by causing to it wrongful loss.

v. Earlier, one other complaint was filed by Sanjiva Bottling against the present petitioners and some other persons on 24-7-2C00 in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Bhopal with regard to an agreement entered into between the parties. The offences alleged were those under section 420, 120-B and 511 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Magistrate referred the complaint to the police for investigation under section 156(3) of the Code.

vi. On 31-10-2000, police submitted a report in this case stating that the case was of civil nature and that no offence had been committed by the accused persons.

vii. The learned Magistrate, however, came to the conclusion that the report filed by the police was not in the correct format as prescribed by the rules and directed the police to file it in the correct format vide order dated 16-11-2000.

viii. Pursuant to the order of the Magistrate, the police not only registered complaint filed on 24-7-2000 as Crime No. 5/2001 but on its own registered the present complaint filed on 23-11-2000 as Crime No. 18/2001 and once again started the investigation.

ix. It is the case of the applicant that the complaint which was registered as Crime No. 18/2001 fails to disclose the commission of any offence. The FIR is bald and does not assign any individual or overt act on any of the accused persons. From the reading of the FIR no criminal act can be made out. The only allegations in the complaint are that the accused persons wanted to cause wrongful loss to the complainant and the letters of the complainant are not properly replied. In the complaint the complainant only stated that the accused persons want to cause wrongful loss. It fails to mention that wrongful loss has in fact been caused. x. It is averred in the petition that the entire money which was debit