The single-judge bench of the Jharkhand High Court held that mens rea is one of the essential ingredients of the offence punishable under Section 418 of the Indian Penal Code.
Brief facts
The factual matrix of the case is that the Petitioners were the owner of the coal and the coal was to be transported to their own hard coke factory, however, the said instead of being taken to the factory of the petitioners, was taken to the brick kiln of Shree Ram Hard Coke and Allied Industries and was found in the premises of the said industry. After investigation, the charge sheet was filed for the offence punishable under Section 418 of the Indian Penal Code. Aggrieved by this, the present petition is filed in order to quash the criminal proceedings.
Contentions of the Petitioner
The Petitioner contended that the allegations made in the FIR don’t constitute the offence The Petitioner relied upon the judgments titled Rajesh Kumar Agrawal vs. The State of Jharkhand & Another, Dhiraj Kumar Swarnkar vs. The State of Jharkhand & Others, Manendra Kumar Singh @ Muna Kumar Singh vs. The State of Jharkhand & Others, and Abhas Kumar Acksaria & Others Vs. The State of Bihar & Others.
Contentions of the State
The state contended that since the petitioners were under the obligation to take the coal to their factory at Purulia only, hence, by taking the coal to the factory at Shree Ram Hard Coke and Allied Industries, is sufficient to constitute the offence punishable under Section 418 of Indian Penal Code.
Observations of the court
The court laid down the essential ingredients to constitute an offence under Section 418 of the Indian Penal Code and they are as follows
i) accused cheated a person
(ii) at the time of offence committed the accused was bound by law or legal contract to protect the interest of the person whom he cheated
(iii) the obligation related to transaction involving cheating
(iv) accused had the knowledge that his act was likely to cause wrongful loss to the person cheated and whose interest he was bound to protect.
The court relied upon the judgment titled Medchl Chemicals & Pharma (P) Ltd. vs. Biological E. Ltd. & Others.
The court noted that there exists no allegation of cheating against the Petitioner nor any ingredient of offence under section 418 of the Indian Penal Code committed.
Based on these considerations, the court quashed and set aside the proceedings.
The decision of the Court
With the above direction, the court allowed the Petition.
Case Title: Sudhir Kumar Goyal V. The State of Jharkhand
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary
Case No.; Cr.M.P. No.2534 of 2021
Advocate for the Petitioner: Mr. Shailesh, Advocate
Advocate for the State: Mr. Prabir Kr. Chatterjee, Spl.P.P
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