AHMEDABAD: Some 53 years after it was first instituted in 1968, the city civil court last week disposed of its oldest pending criminal case as two of the accused could not be traced half a century later.
In this case, three persons – Trilokchand Sharma, Biharilal Sharma and Ramsnehi Subedar – were booked by Shaherkotda police in 1968 under sections 407, 414 and 114 of IPC, for criminal breach of trust after being entrusted with property as carriers and for assisting in concealment of stolen property and abetment. They were granted bail by the court.
In 1969, when the court summoned them for the trial, only Trilokchand turned up. There was no information about the whereabouts of Sharma and Subedar. In absence of two accused, the court separated Trilokchand’s case and it came to an end the same year on June 2, 1969. On the other hand, the court continued to issue non-bailable warrants and even declared the other accused as absconders. However, they remained untraceable and the case went into the section of ‘dormant case’ file in 2002.
As more than 50 years passed after filing of the case, principal sessions judge Shubhada Baxi initiated the process for disposal. She asked the public prosecutor to raise the issue of this long pending case and for its disposal. Accordingly, public prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt on August 5 wrote to Ahmedabad district magistrate and requested him to use the government’s powers under section 321 of the CrPC to withdraw the case.
The prosecutor told the district magistrate that enough efforts were made to secure the presence of both the accused in court, but they did not yield any result. There is no possibility of any fruitful result even in future also, particularly when the accused persons were absconding for more than half a century. Moreover, the criminal charges levelled in the case entail punishment up to seven years only. The district collector accepted the proposal to withdraw the case on August 12. The public prosecutor’s office accordingly filed an application in the court for withdrawal of the case.
On August 17, the principal sessions judge accepted the proposal for withdrawal of the case and disposed of the sessions case. The court recorded that there is no possibility of tracing the accused persons in future and there was no point in continuing with the criminal proceedings.
