Madhya Pradesh High Court refuses to quash FIR against advocate booked for posing as Train TTE

The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently refused to quash a criminal case against a lawyer who allegedly pretended to be a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) and took money from passengers at the Bhopal railway station platform..Justice Anuradha Shukla observed that the case involved disputed facts that could be examined only by a full-fledged trial."It has been vehemently argued here that no money was recovered from the applicant (accused) nor he was having any badge, etc. on his attire to give the impression that he was an employee of railways nor the statements of any of the passengers were recorded but all these issues are related to facts and can be examined only during trial. It is for the trial court to examine whether the prosecution is able to prove its case on the basis of statements of railway employees," the Court said. .The alleged incident occurred on June 21, 2021, when a railway official received complaints from passengers at platform number 2 of the Bhopal railway station. The passengers claimed that a man was impersonating as a TTE and demanding money from them. Based on these complaints, the railway official confronted the accused man who claimed to be a TTE. The official found that the man had an Excess Fair Ticket (EFT) Book that bore an official railway number. The official took the accused man to the Deputy Station Superintendent. On further inquiry, the man identified himself as Rohit Kumar Mishra, a resident of district Kaushambhi, Uttar Pradesh. .The officials then prepared a memo and escorted the accused man to the Government Railway Police (GRP) station in Bhopal, where a first information report (FIR) was registered against him on June 23, 2021.Thereafter, the accused man (petitioner) filed a petition before the High Court seeking to quash the FIR against him. .The counsel defending the petitioner denied all the allegations made by the railway officials and countered that the petitioner had been kept in unlawful detention.He claimed that, according to a report made by the North-Central Railway dated January 3, 2022, the book seized from the petitioner was not an EFT book but merely a money receipt book. The defence further argued that the petitioner, being an advocate, was suffering from mental instability due to the pandemic and that he was wearing his black advocate's coat at the station that day. This coat did not have any specific symbol to indicate that he was a TTE. He was implicated in the case based on false impressions, the Court was told. .The prosecution, on the other hand, presented CCTV footage showing Mishra interacting with passengers and asking for their tickets.The prosecution further argued that despite the absence of recovered money or passenger statements, these are factual issues that should be examined during the trial..The Court observed that the memo made by the railway officials revealed that the book found in possession of Mishra, even if it was not an EFT book, bore a seal of the North-Central Railway, Prayagraj Checking Unit."Thus, even if the receipt book seized from the applicant was not EFT Book but it was a money receipt book clearly creating an impression that it belonged to the checking unit of North-Central Railway of the region of Prayagraj," the Court reasoned. .The Court added that it could not conclude that the petitioner was falsely implicated based only on the fact that statements from passengers were not recorded."Merely for the absence of statements of passengers, no conclusion can be arrived at this stage that the applicant was falsely implicated in the case," the Court said..Therefore, it declined to quash the FIR and dismissed the accused lawyer's petition. .Advocate Anuvaad Shrivastava appeared for the petitioner. Advocate Vineeta Sharma represented the State..[Read Order]