496. Covid-19 FIR – Illegal mining – Visit by political person -- Quashing of FIR:
-- In a democratic country, if a well-established political person, on hearing serious complaints regarding any public issue, decides to verify the same by visiting the spot itself, it cannot be said that he intended to violate any promulgation issued by any government under Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 or Disaster Management Act, 2006.
-- Petitioner had gone on hearing the complaints of illegal mining was a riverbed, which was not at all habited, and the workers had fled away on noticing the presence of the petitioner -- No evidence that at any point in time, the petitioner was having any symptoms of COVID-19 infection -- No other evidence collected by the investigator against the petitioner, which may call for violation of Sections 269, 270, 188, 341, 506 IPC, and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
Continuation of criminal proceedings shall amount to an abuse of the process of law, and the Court invokes its inherent jurisdiction u/s 482 CrPC and quashes the FIR and all subsequent proceedings -- Petition allowed. (P&H) Reserved on: 24.07.2023 Decided on: 24.08.2023