P. Ubaid, J.:— The petitioner herein is the original first accused in C.C No. 409 of 2002 of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I, Manjeri. The offences involved in this case are under Sections 323 and 324 read with Section 34 of IPC. The original second accused faced trial before the trial court, and obtained a judgment of acquittal on 16.8.2003, when all the material witnesses including the defacto complainant turned hostile to the prosecution in view of an amicable settlement made by the parties out of court. The case against the petitioner herein was split up and refiled as C.C No. 539 of 2003, when he remained consistently absent.
2. The petitioner now seek orders quashing the prosecution as against him on the ground that the very substratum of the prosecution case is totally lost by the acquittal of the others, and continuance of the prosecution against him will not serve any purpose. Annexure-II judgment in C.C 409 of 2002 shows that all the material witnesses examined by the prosecution in the said case turned hostile in view of an amicable settlement made by the parties out of court. In such a situation, it is quite definite that the prosecution cannot in any manner improve the case and the witnesses also cannot in any manner help the prosecution, if the case against the petitioner goes to trial. In short, such proceeding will be a sheer waste of time.
3. In the result, this petition is allowed. The prosecution against the petitioner in C.C No. 539 of 2003 of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I, Manjeri, will stand quashed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Accordingly, the petitioner will stand released from prosecution, and the bail bond, if any, executed by him will stand discharged.
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