Pat HC | Director of a company cannot be made to suffer rigors of criminal trial in the absence of material proving allegations against him

Patna High Court: The Bench of Ahsanuddin Amanullah, J. allowed an application filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 seeking quashing of a criminal case.

Respondent 2 herein had filed a complaint against petitioner and few other people alleging that he had induced him to invest Rs 28 lakhs in a construction company. The Magistrate took cognizance of the said offence under Sections 120 B, 420 of the Penal Code, 1860 and Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 and issued summon against the petitioner. Aggrieved thereby, the instant application was filed.

The petitioner’s case was that there was no material on record to show that he had induced respondent 2 to invest in the company. It was argued that making the petitioner an accused in the case, only because he was a Director of the Company, was abuse of process of the Court.

The Court noted that there being absolutely no allegation against petitioner in the entire complaint with regard to either inducement or entrustment of money or even issuance of cheque; just because he was a Director in the concerned company, it would not make him liable for any of the allegations levelled against other co-accused. It was concluded that prosecution against the petitioner was with malafide intention and only to harass him. Accordingly, the entire criminal proceeding against him was quashed.[Ramanjee Jha v. State Of Bihar, 2019 SCC OnLine Pat 228, Order dated 21-02-2019]