The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has refused to quash the FIR registered against Dr M.C. Saxena, the founder chairman of the Dr M.C. Saxena Group of Colleges, and his family, for the fake treatment of labourers in the hospital. The Court also refused to stay their arrest.
The FIR had alleged that perfectly healthy labourers were lured with money and food to get their hospital recognised as a medical college.
The Division Bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Writ Petition filed by Dr M.C. Saxena And Others.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners have falsely been implicated in the crime due to professional rivalries of the petitioners’ Institution. The petitioners are the family members and relatives of each other. The First Information Report has no basis of substance in it. All the petitioners are respectable persons of the society. The petitioner no 1 and 2 are senior citizens and are husband and wife. Petitioner nos 3 and 4 are the daughters of petitioner nos 1 and 2 and the Secretary and Member respectively of the said Institution.
The petitioner nos 5 and 6 are the daughter-in-law and son-in-law of the petitioner nos 1 and 2 respectively. The Institution of the petitioners has been working for the benefit of society at large. The Institution of the petitioners served the nation during Covid-19 pandemic and their services were recognized. The Hospital of the Group has also been recognized as “Ayushman Bharat Centre” by the Government of India to impart free of cost treatment to the Ayushman beneficiaries as recognized by the Government of India. The contents of the FIR are absolutely false, frivolous and do not attract the sections under which police had registered the present FIR.
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He further submitted that the petitioners have no criminal history and the petitioners are ready to cooperate with the investigation, as such, the arrest of the petitioners should be stayed.
Vishwas Shukla, Additional Government Advocate, opposed the prayer and submitted that the complainant is a poor labourer, who got registered the FIR alleging that he along with other 70-80 labourers were lured with Rs 500 and food and asked to lie down in the hospital bed. They all were put on a separate bed. Though they were not ill yet their prescriptions were made and Vigo was put on the injections. When the people of the hospital started to give injections, they got frightened and objected to that, then the hospital people threatened them. Somehow, the complainant escaped and informed the police. The police reached the Institution and found about 150-200 labourers in the Institution with Vigo/injections and they were rescued by the police. The police also got the medical examination done on about 30 labourers and they were found with Vigo and marks of injections also found. All the people rescued said that they were not ill.
The petitioners have done all this to get their hospital recognized as a Medical College. The petitioners are trying to destroy the evidence and not cooperate with the investigation. Hence the writ petition should be rejected.
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The Court observed,
“In perusal of the first information report discloses a cognizable offence. The written instructions received and filed by the AGA discloses that when the police reached the Hospital on the information of the complainant, they found 200-250 labourers kept there as patients and all were rescued by the police.
The petitioner no 1 has criminal history of three cases, however, it has been mentioned in the writ petition that petitioners have no criminal antecedents. A false affidavit has been filed by the petitioner no 1 Dr M.C. Saxena as he himself has criminal history of three cases. When a specific query was made to the counsel for the petitioners about the criminal antecedents of the petitioner no 1-Dr M.C Saxena, he could not give any satisfactory answer.”
After having examined the submissions advanced by counsel for the parties and perused the FIR, the Court opined that the FIR discloses cognizable offence against the petitioners.
“Hence, no interference is called for by the Court in exercise of its extraordinary power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for quashing of the FIR or for grant of any interim relief to the petitioners and also in view of the law laid down in M/s Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (Supra) passed by the Apex Court order dated 13.04.2021, the writ petition is dismissed”
-the order reads.
The writ petition has been filed by the petitioners praying for the following reliefs:-
“(a) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari thereby quashing the FIR and all the further action in pursuance of the FIR contained as Annexure No. 1 to this writ petition registered as Crime No. 52/2022, under Sections 324, 327, 328, 342, 384, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 505 IPC, Police Station Thakurganj, District Lucknow (West).
(b) Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction restraining the opposite party nos. 1 and 2 from arresting, prosecuting the petitioners and making investigation against the petitioners on the basis of the first information report contained as Annexure No. 1 lodged by the opposite party no. 3 with the police of Police Station Thakurganj, District Lucknow (West) arising out of Crime No. 52/2022, under Sections 324, 327, 328, 342, 384, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 505 IPC, Police Station Thakurganj, District Lucknow (West).”