ORAL ORDER

The petitioner is before the Court seeking the following prayer:

“45. Issue a writ of Certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to quash the order dated 15.12.2025 passed by the Principal District & Sessions Judge, Chitradurga, in Crl.R.P. No.108/2025, The order dated 15.12.2025 is herewith furnished and marked as Annexure - A

46. Issue a writ of Certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, to quash the order dated 30.10.2025 passed by the Principal Civil Judge & JMFC, Challakere, in Crime No.396/2025 of Challakere Police Station (C.C. No.2274/2025), The order dated 30.10.2025 is herewith furnished and marked as Annexure- B.

47. And consequently allow the application filed by the Petitioner dated 17/10/2025 annexed as Annexure K., by directing the Respondent No. 1, to release the cash amounting to Rs.96,96,800/-, seized and reported under PF No.240/2025 dated 27/08/2025 annexed as Annexure-F and PF No.238/2025 dated 26/08/2025 annexed as Annexure G in Crime No.396/2025 of Challakere Police Station (C.C. No.2274/2025), in favour of the Petitioner herein.

48. Grant such other and further reliefs as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit in the interests of justice and equity.”

2. Heard Sri Arunachalam Shivakumar, learned counsel for petitioner and Sri B.N.Jagadeesha, learned Additional State Public Prosecutor for the respondent.

3. The story would commence from the journey of the petitioner and his wife in a Car, which undertook from Bangalore to Bellary to register a land and to finalise the marriage arrangements of their daughter. They stopped at Udupi Garden Hotel, at Challakere, finished their lunch and when they come back to the Car, neither the Car, nor the cash that was in the Car found and the driver was also found absconding. Immediately a complaint comes to be registered in Crime No.396/2025. The very next two days, i.e., on 26.08.2025 and 27.08.2025, the police trace out the driver, seized the cash and registered the recovered cash in P.F.Nos.238 and 240 of 2025. Seizure of the cash is reported to the learned Magistrate on 27.08.2025.

4. The petitioner then files an application under Section 503 of the BNSS seeking interim custody of the seized cash. On 21.10.2025, the accused - driver is said to have rendered a voluntary statement admitting that the seized cash belongs to the petitioner. The application is objected to by the respondent - police and charge sheet is filed on the basis of the said statement. Though there is no rival claimant before the concerned Court for the cash in P.F.Nos.238 and 240 of 2025, the petitioner's application filed under Section 503 of the BNSS comes to be rejected by the concerned Court, in terms of the order dated 17.10.2025. The petitioner then challenges the said order by filing criminal revision petition in Crl.R.P.No.108/2025, seeking interim custody of cash by obliterating the order of the learned Magistrate, which also comes to be rejected in terms of the order dated 15.12.2025. It is these two orders that has driven the petitioner to this Court in the subject petition.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner in the memorandum of petition as well as before the concerned Court has clearly indicated as to how he secured the said cash and for what purpose they were travelling with that said cash. He would submit that accused himself appeared before the concerned Court and admits that the cash belongs to the petitioner and he was the one who had stolen it. Despite there being no rival claim, the concerned court has not released the cash in favour of the petitioner.

6. Learned Additional State Public Prosecutor would however, submit that the cash in the event is required adequate security need be furnished by the petitioner, but, would admit the fact that there is no rival claimant to the said cash.

7. I have given my anxious consideration to the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and have perused the mate