The court dismissed the petition to quash criminal proceedings, affirming that prima facie evidence of misconduct and negligence under relevant statutes was established.

ORDER :

J. Sreenivas Rao, J.

This Criminal Petition has been filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure , 1973 (for short, ‘Cr.P.C.’) by the petitioner/accused seeking to quash the proceedings in FIR No.03/ACB-KNR/2022 of ACB Police Station, Karimnagar Range, registered for the offences under Section 13 (1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988 (as amended in 2018) (hereinafter referred to as, ‘the Act’) and Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code , 1860 (for short ‘IPC’).

2. Brief facts of the case:

2.1 The case of the prosecution is that the petitioner worked as Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB), Nizamabad. Earlier, while discharging his duties as Circle Inspector of Police, ACB, Karimnagar, he had conducted investigation in several cases, however, he did not deposit the case properties including trap amounts, gold ornaments, mobile phones, DVDs, chemical samples and other items, seized during the course of investigation in multiple cases, which were required to be deposited in the Court or hand over to his successors, but he failed to do so. In particular, he did not deposit or hand over the trap amounts of Rs.30,000/-, Rs.1,00,000/-, and Rs.1,50,000/-, an iPhone, and several gold ornaments, out of which some ornaments were later found to be counterfeit upon appraisal. The cases affected include Crime No.07/ACB-KNR/2017, Crime No.09/ACB- KNR/2017, Crime No.04/ACB-KNR/2018 and Crime No.14/ACB-KNR/2009, and he deliberately misappropriated and suppressed case properties, thereby obstructing the course of justice. Acting upon the directions of the Government of Telangana and the ACB authorities, the present crime was registered for the aforementioned offences. Hence, the petitioner filed the present criminal petition seeking to quash the proceedings in the present crime.

3. Heard Sri Ch.Venkat Raman, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri T.Bala Mohan Reddy, learned Special Public Prosecutor, appearing on behalf of respondent- State.

4. Submissions of learned counsel for the petitioner:

4.1 Learned counsel submitted that the petitioner has not committed any offence and he was falsely implicated in the present case. Even according to the allegations made in the complaint, the ingredients for the offences under Section 13 (1)(a) of the Act and Section 201 of IPC do not attract against the petitioner. He further submitted that the petitioner had taken full additional charge of Inspector of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Karimnagar and he worked from 07.11.2017 to 02.04.2021 and on his promotion as DSP, he handed over CD files pertaining to ACB, Karimnagar, to his successor namely S.P.Ravinder, on 06.05.2021. In turn, the said S.P.Ravinder handed over the same to A.Thirupathi, on 01.06.2021. 4.2 He further submitted that the only allegation made against the petitioner is that he failed to hand over the case properties and trap amount in i) Crime No.07/ACB- KNR/2017, ii) Crime No.09/ACB-KNR/2017, iii) Crime No.04/ACB-KNR/2018, and iv) Crime No.14/ACB- KNR/2009 and he did not make any effort to report the missing trap amounts and mobile phone to his superior Officers and thereby he committed gross negligence towards his duties. The petitioner is not responsible for the missing trap amounts and mobile phone. He further submitted that due to the negligence of the Court Head Constable namely G.Sadaiah of ACB, missed the trap amounts in the above three cases. As soon as the petitioner came to know about the said facts, he lodged a complaint on 19.08.2021 to the Director General of ACB, Telangana to take action against the concerned. However,