Srinagar: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh held that it is not mandatory for an Investigating Agency to conduct a preliminary enquiry before registration of an FIR when there are cognizable offences.
Justice Sanjay Dhar while hearing a plea of Abdul Hamid Dar, an assistant treasury officer seeking quashment of an FIR in a corruption case cited Supreme Court directives recording that “where relevant information regarding prima facie allegations disclosing a cognizable offence is available, the officer recording the FIR can proceed against the accused on the basis of the information without conducting a preliminary enquiry”.
Court said it is clear that it is not mandatory for an Investigating Agency to conduct preliminary enquiry before registration of an FIR in a corruption case and merely because no preliminary enquiry has been undertaken by the Investigating Agency before registering an FIR in a corruption case, the said FIR would not stand vitiated.
“In the face of this position of law, the contention of the petitioner in this regard is without merit,” court said.
Earlier, court recorded that it has been alleged that misappropriation to the tune of Rs.86,46,900/ has taken place in Sub Treasury, Trehgam, during the period commencing 1st April, 2017 to 31 November, 2017 and that during this period, the petitioner was posted as Assistant Treasury Officer, Trehgam.
The FIR gives the details of the misappropriated amount as also the details of the persons in whose accounts the money has been transferred. The misappropriation of the aforesaid amount has taken place over a period of eight months and it was only when Audit Inspection Party pointed out the aforesaid misappropriation/embezzlement of Government money in its report, that the petitioner is stated to have taken steps for remittance of the said amount in the Government Treasury by getting the entries reversed from the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
“Thus, prima facie, it appears that the petitioner is involved in the commission of cognizable offences relating to embezzlement of Government money. The question whether the aforesaid act on the part of the petitioner was due to inadvertent mistake or due to malfunctioning of the treasury net application software, is a matter of investigation and for the said purpose, the respondent Investigating Agency has to be permitted to undertake the investigation of the case,” Justice Dhar said.
Court said for the foregoing reasons, the petition lacks merit and is dismissed accordingly.
“The interim order, whereby investigation in the impugned FIR has been stayed, is vacated.The Case Diary be returned to learned counsel for the respondents,” court said.