Prayagraj, Jan 22 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has quashed criminal proceedings in a theft case where cognisance was taken by a magistrate after the three-year limitation period prescribed under Section 468 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Justice Praveen Kumar Giri took strong exception to the explanation offered by the then chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Firozabad who submitted that as per the usual practice prevalent in all magisterial courts, no in-depth enquiry is made on police reports before taking cognizance.
In its order dated January 19, the high court also directed the Judicial Training and Research Institute, Lucknow to impart training to judicial officers in the state that “cognizance is the base of a criminal case, so cognizance order must be passed in accordance with law”.
With the observation, the court quashed the criminal case lodged in 2019 against one Avneesh Kumar.
Earlier, it had called for an explanation from the CJM concerned as to why cognizance was taken beyond the limitation period as provided under sections 468 and 469 of CrPC.
The case pertained to a motorcycle theft incident and the FIR was lodged in July 2019 under IPC Section 379. The first chargesheet was filed against five co-accused and cognizance taken promptly in 2019.
However, the investigation against the applicant (Avneesh Kumar) and another accused (Suraj Thakur) remained pending.
A second chargesheet against these two accused was prepared on June 26, 2021, but it remained at the circle officer (city), Firozabad for over three years.
Eventually, it was submitted to the court in November 2024.
Ignoring the three-year limitation bar, the CJM concerned took cognisance of the same more than five years after the incident and three years after the filing of chargesheet. PTI CORR RAJ KVK KVK
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