Complaint By Victim Not Compulsory For Cognisable Offence If Investigation Set In Motion
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First publised on 2023-08-10 09:30:37
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By our team of in-house writers.
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In the forgery and cheating case of a denim manufacturing company, a magistrate's court in Mumbai took a considered view that absence of complaint by the defrauded entities was not a ground to absolve the guilty if a cognizable offence has been investigated by information received and the accused have been found guilty. The court sentenced 9 persons, all of them senior citizens, to three years' simple imprisonment in the case.
It was proved that the guilty had forged documents and submitted false financial statements to avail credit facilities from Bank of Baroda and Federal Bank and had then used them for purposes other than for which the credit facility was granted. The court was of the view that although the accused had settled with one of the banks by paying a one-time amount and the banks had not lodged a complaint, since public money was involved and the CBI had investigated the matter to find them guilty, no relief can be granted on that account.
The court said "it is now a settled law that investigation machinery can be set in motion by anyone on information of cognizable offence. The prosecution was initiated on the basis of information received by the CBI and it would be entitled to do so in regard to its statutory powers contained in the Delhi Special Police Act since the money involved in the financial fraud is public money belonging to public sector banks. Therafter, merely the banks have not filed any complaint and/or not lodged an FIR is no ground to hold there is no any cheating, forgery, fraud committed by the accused." The court held that the accused entered into criminal conspiracy, forged documents to avail credit facilities and misused them.
