A criminal case of cognizable offense has been filed by a police station “A” u/s 420, 406 and some other sections of IPC where NEITHER the accused NOR the complainant reside within the jurisdiction of said police station “A”. The complaint has been forwarded to the court of ACJM under which the said police station “A” falls. The place of occurrence, available from the content of the complaint, appears to be bouncing of two cheque in a bank account of the complainant where the bank falls within the jurisdiction of the same said police station “A”. Long ago, the complainant used to live in the locality where the said bank is situated but NOT when the bouncing of said cheque happened. Meanwhile more than 9 months has passed by and the case is still open in the said court.
The summery of the concerned complaint is, on the basis of verbal understanding certain financial investment has been made by the complainant to the accused by cheque for a business venture on condition (verbal too) that the period of the said investment would be one year and during this period the said complainant would enjoy certain percentage from the return of the business but after completion of the said period said investment needs to be refunded by the accused to the complainant but even after passing of said one year period the accused did not refund the invested amount to the complainant, meanwhile the complainant, by showing fear, forcefully recovered some money in cash (no detailed given) from the accused which the complainant preferred to term as interest though there was no specific understanding, either verbally or written, that the said investment was actually a loan therefore subjected to interest rather the complainant specifically mentioned that the condition was sharing of certain percentage from the return of the business in question. On a later date, the complainant also taken two undated cheque from the accused for future adjustment. The complainant also raised question about the existence of said business as false even though the complainant admittedly taken some (undeclared) amount of money from the accused, installment of which lasted for about 2-3 years but he never questioned the existence of the business earlier. The question is also unanswered whether the business in question is/was a co-shared business.
The statement of the accused is not mentioned here since he did not get the opportunity to tell his version till date as the trial did not start yet.
However, as it appeared from the reflection of the said complaint that since the complainant holds a bank account in a bank that falls within the jurisdiction of said police station “A”, so he probably preferred to file the instant case within the local limit of said police station “A”, where his bank also situated. It appears to me to mention as relevant that the receiving of said cash by the complainant can not be the cause of action so that a case of this nature can be filed with a police station withing whose jurisdiction neither the accused or the complainant reside.
But presentment of cheque and corresponding bouncing of the same in the account of his said bank may be a cause of action for the complainant to file a case against the accused with the police station where his bank also situated. If this is the case then a question may rise whether such bouncing of cheque attracts penal provision under section 420, 408 IPC? It is necessary to mention that the complainant admittedly received some money from the accused from the return of said business that lasted about 2-3 years. Is not such bouncing of cheque appropriately falls under the prevailing NI Act ?
So I raise some of my “fundamental questions” here as following .
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How Jurisdiction of a police station is decided in a criminal case (cognizable offense) and under which applicable law?
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How place of occurrence and cause of action is decided to establish proper jurisdiction of a PS?
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Where and how to raise the issue if it is found that a police station did not consider its proper jurisdiction under applicable law about a criminal case filed by them against an accused?
