ORDER

Date : 01.04.2021 The writ petition has been preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by three petitioners seeking, inter alia, a direction to the State respondent authorities to conclude the investigations and to submit charge sheets in connection with three cases, referred hereinbelow, or in the alternative, to investigate the said three case by a separate independent investigating agency.

2. The writ petition has been filed by the three writ petitioners expressing dissatisfaction with the manners the investigations are being carried out in connection with three cases viz. Pragjyotishpur Police Station Case no. 102/2015, Pragjyotishpur Police Station Case no. 103/2015 and Pragjyotishpur Police Station Case no. 104/2015, all of which had been registered under Sections 420/468, Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Sections 4/5 of the Assam Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2010 at the instances of the three petitioners as the informants.

3. The case projected on behalf of the petitioners is that the petitioner no. 1 and the petitioner no. 2 are retired Assistant Teachers and the petitioner no. 3 is a housewife and a senior citizen. It has been stated that the petitioner no. 1 is the owner of a plot of land admeasuring 4 kathas covered by Dag no. 177 and Patta no. 81 (hereinafter referred to as ‘plot no. 1’). The petitioner no. 2 is the owner of a plot of land admeasuring 2 bighas covered by Dag no. 174 and Patta no. 81 (hereinafter referred to as ‘plot no. 2’) and the petitioner no. 3 is the owner of a plot land admeasuring 1 bigha covered by Dag no. 177 & 174 and Patta no. 81 (hereinafter referred to as ‘plot no. 3’). All the three plots of land are situated at village - Khankar, Mouza - Panbari, Chandrapur, District - Kamrup (M).

4. According to the petitioners, the respondent no. 7 approached petitioners in the early part of 2012 with proposals to purchase the afore-mentioned three plots of land by offering different consideration amounts. He made the proposals to purchase the plot no. 1 by offering Rs. 7,50,000/-, the plot no. 2 by offering Rs. 32,00,000/- and the plot no. 3 by offering Rs. 5,00,000/- respectively. Upon consideration of the proposals made by the respondent no. 7, the petitioners stated to have agreed to the same and each received a part of the aforesaid considerations as advances. The respondent no. 7 offered to complete the sale transactions by taking initiatives from his end and with such assurance, he requested the petitioners to hand him over the land documents in connection with the said three plots of land. The petitioners under bona fide belief that the respondent no. 7 was sincere in his approach, handed over the land documents to him without any suspicion. For a substantial period of time thereafter, nothing was heard from the respondent no. 7.

5. The petitioners were shocked and surprised to be served with a notice dated 29.04.2015 under Section 13(2) of the Securitisation and Re-construction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFESI Act) by Punjab National Bank whereby it was informed to the petitioners that there was default in payment of installments/interest/principal debt and as a result, a loan account bearing no. 321300AP73002646 had been classified as a Non Performing Asset (NPA) as per the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 31.03.2020. On receipt of the said notice, the petitioners made enquiries and were surprised to learn that the respondent no. 7 as a proprietor of one M/s Chandrapur Rural Warehouse, had availed credit facilities in the form of a term loan from Punjab National Bank and the three plots of land, belonging to the petitioners, were provided as a security to obtain the aforesaid credit facility. There was default on the part of the respondent no. 7 and as a result, an amount of Rs. 4,08,55,367/- had become outstanding. The notice under Section 13(2) of the SARFESI Act had been served upon the petitioners as the g