HC quashes FIR, chargesheet against man accused of seeking bribe on behalf of Invest UP CEO

Prakash was also accused of anomalies in land acquisition at a village in Lucknow for the Defence Corridor project during his tenure as the Lucknow district magistrate.

The official of the firm, SAEL Solar P6 Private Ltd, had alleged that Prakash asked him to meet Jain to discuss securing a project worth Rs 8,000 crore.

In its order issued on Monday, the bench of Justice Rajeev Singh observed, “After analyzing all the facts and discussions made, this Court is of the view that there is no evidence in the entire case diary that any property was delivered to the applicant pursuant to threat and, therefore, no offence of extortion is made out. Simultaneously, there is no evidence in the case diary that the applicant gives or promises to give any undue advantage to any official of Invest UP or High Empowered Committee or the Members of Cabinet.”

“Thus, no offence under Sections 8, 12 of PC Act is made out against the applicant either. Apart from above, since the very foundation of the proceedings, i.e., the complaint itself has lost its sanctity, as per the counter affidavit duly sworn by the complainant, this Court finds no ground whatsoever to allow the impugned proceedings to proceed further,” the bench stated.

Jain was arrested after the FIR was registered against him under section 308 (5) (extortion issuing threats) of the BNS and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act at Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar police station in March last year while the chargesheet was filed in May.

The court also observed that it was stated in the “second written statement that the company’s matter was presented before the Evaluation Committee, but the committee deferred the application with the observation that the same will be considered in the next meeting, after obtaining response from the departments concerned”.

Jain’s counsel submitted in the court that no evidence about the delivery of any property or money was found during their investigation by police, and therefore, no offence was made out against the him under Section 308(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita

The bench order added, “The root cause of the entire proceedings is the written complaint moved by the complainant and the admitted position is that due to utter confusion and misunderstanding, complaint was given by him to the Chief Secretary, which fact is mentioned in his counter affidavit. It is also admitted by the complainant that later on, it came into his knowledge that since the information pertaining to availability of land and subsidy on electricity was not available on record, the project was put for re-evaluation in the meeting of Evaluation Committee.”

“The complainant, in his counter affidavit, admitted that due to wrong impression, the complaint was given by him to the Chief Secretary. He also admitted that no money was given to the applicant,” it said.