IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH

AT GWALIOR

BEFORE

HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE MILIND RAMESH PHADKE

th

ON THE 13 OF JANUARY, 2026

MISC. CRIMINAL CASE No. 16321 of 2020

SHIV KUMAR SHARMA

Versus

STATE OF M.P. AND OTHERS

Appearance:

Shri Sanjay Kumar Bahirani - Advocate for the petitioner.

Shri Brijesh Kumar Tyagi - Public Prosecutor for the State.

ORDER Society, he was simultaneously working as a seller at the Government Fair Price Shop, Pratapapura. During the period from August 2019 to March 2020, the accused collected sale proceeds of food grains from the Fair Price Shop but failed to deposit the said amount in the accounts of the Cooperative Society. Further, mandatory entries were not made from time to time in the official records and registers of the Society and its branch. Upon receipt of complaints and after preliminary verification, the allegations against accused Shivkumar Sharma were found to be prima facie correct, and consequently, he was placed under suspension. Despite suspension, the accused did not deposit the Government food grains, POS machine, and other official documents with the Society, and there existed a strong possibility of their misuse. It was further alleged that even after suspension, accused Shivkumar Sharma continued to distribute food grains at the Government Fair Price Shop, Pratapapura, without any authority or permission, thereby causing wrongful loss to the Government and the Cooperative Society and wrongful gain to himself. On the basis of the aforesaid allegations, offences punishable under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act were registered. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioner has preferred the present petition.

The present petition has been filed under Section 482 of the Code of

Criminal Procedure, 1973, invoking the inherent jurisdiction of this Court for quashment of the First Information Report registered as Crime No. 62/2020 at Police Station Ater, District Bhind, for the alleged commission of offences punishable under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, along with quashment of all

consequential proceedings arising therefrom.

Brief facts of the case, as projected by the prosecution, are that on

23.04.2020, a written complaint was submitted at Police Station Ater by the complainant Ashwini Kumar Gonam, aged about 50 years, Committee Manager/Supervisor of Vrittakar Sahakari Sanstha Maryadit, Pratapapura Branch, Ater alleging that during the period when Shivkumar Sharma (present petitioner) was posted as Assistant Manager of the said Cooperative

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case and the impugned FIR is the result of administrative and departmental differences. The FIR has been registered mechanically, without proper verification of facts and without appreciating the legal requirements necessary to constitute the alleged offences.

It is further submitted that even if the allegations made in the FIR are accepted in their entirety, the dispute remains purely civil and departmental in nature. The grievance pertains to alleged non-deposit of sale proceeds and non-maintenance of records, which may at best give rise to departmental or civil action and do not constitute the offence of criminal breach of trust under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code.

It is further submitted that a sine qua non for attracting Section 409 IPC is entrustment of property in the capacity of a public servant and dishonest misappropriation thereof and the FIR is completely silent on any specific act of entrustment of Government property to the petitioner in his personal capacity. The petitioner, being a fair price shop dealer/employee of a cooperative society, does not fall within the definition of “public servant” as provided under Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code. In the absence of this essential requirement, no offence under Section 409 IPC is made o