M. Abdul Rasheed v. Inspector Of Police And Another

P.N. Prakash, J.:— For the sake of convenience, the parties will be referred to by their names.

2. On the complaint lodged by A.K. Tajudeen, the respondent police registered a case in Crime No. 960 of 2014 on 26.02.2014 under Section 406 and 420 IPC against (i) J.M. Iqbal, Secretary, Masjid-E-Mamoor Committee and (ii) M. Abdul Rasheed, Assistant Secretary, Masjid-E-Mamoor Committee, for quashing which, Abdul Rasheed is before this Court.

3. Heard Mr. M.J. Jaseem Mohamed, learned counsel for the petitioner; Mr. L. Charles Premkumar, learned Government Advocate (Crl. Side) appearing for the 1 respondent and Mr. T. Velumani, learned counsel for the 2 respondent.

4. Tajudeen in his complaint to the police, has stated that, he gave representations dated 17.12.2012 and 25.12.2013 to the Government and to the WAKF Board, about the affairs of the Mamoor Masjid and that, Iqbal and Abdul Rasheed are collecting huge monies from public and are not satisfactorily accounting for them. He has further alleged that Mamoor Masjid has not been registered under the Societies Registration Act, but, the accused are projecting as if the Masjid is a registered society for collecting funds.

5. A complete reading of the complaint shows that it does not disclose any specific allegation of embezzlement or fraud and the complaint is replete with general allegations. An F.I.R. can be registered, only when the complaint discloses the commission of a cognizable offence and not based on sweeping allegations, as done in the case at hand. In Secretary, Minor Irrigation v. Sahngoo Ram Arya [(2002) 5 SCC 521], the Supreme Court has held that every person has a right to live with dignity as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India, without being hounded by the police and hence, a general direction to the police to find out if a person has committed an offence, cannot be given.

6. In the result, this Criminal Original Petition is allowed and the F.I.R. in Crime No. 960 of 2014 on the file of the respondent police is quashed, not only as against Abdul Rasheed/petitioner herein (A2), but also against Iqbal (A1). Connected Miscellaneous Petition is closed.