Applying its 2022 judgement of quashing criminal proceedings, against a party organiser, on technical reasons in the 2020 drug racket case, the High Court of Karnataka has also quashed the criminal proceedings against actress Sanjana Galrani, realtor Shivaprakash alias Chippi and financial manager in a tech company Adithya Mohan Agarwal.
Justice Hemanth Chandangoudar passed the order on March 25, a copy of which had been released recently, on the separate petitions filed in 2022 by Sanjana, Shivaprakash, and Aditya questioning the legality of chargesheet filed against them by the city police.
Though the police had registered the FIR in 2020 on a drug racket case, the petitioners were charge-sheeted for the offences, alleged supply and consumption of narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances, in the year 2015, 2018 and 2019.
The Court in January 2022 had quashed the criminal proceedings against Virendra Khanna, a party organiser. The Court, in Khanna’s case, had categorically held that “it was necessary for the police to have registered separate FIRs for those past offences and filed separate chargesheets after investigation.”
Referring to the findings of a coordinate Bench of the court, Justice Chandangoudar pointed out that the police had filed chargesheets against these three petitioners accused also for the alleged offences committed in 2015, 2018, and 2019 like in the case of Khanna. Hence, the Court, said the “continuation of the criminal proceedings against the petitioners will be an abuse of the process of law” as was held in in Khanna’s case.
