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2018 (10) TMI 1938 - HC - Indian LawsCriminal Conspiracy - Prior sanction required to be taken by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the State government in terms of Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (DSPE Act) prior to investigating an offence in the concerned State - HELD THAT:- In the present case, the charge-sheet has already been filed and there is no doubt that the CBI is indeed relying on what transpired during the investigation conducted in Raipur as far as the present Petitioner is concerned. However, the Court is not able to view the judgment in VVIRBHADRA SINGH & ANR. VERSUS CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION & ORS. [2017 (3) TMI 1886 - DELHI HIGH COURT] as having considered the possibility of investigations requiring actions to be taken by the CBI in several States although the registration of the case was in one State. While consent of the State Government might be necessary for registration of a case in that particular State, to say that the CBI must seek the prior consent of every State where the investigation is thereafter conducted would make the scheme of Sections 5 and 6 DSPE Act unworkable - A State Government need not consent only because some other State Government has accorded its consent. Therefore, on the logic of the judgment in Virbhadra Singh (supra), if the consent of eight different States had to be taken and the consent is obtained only of five States, that would mean that the investigation conducted in the remaining three States cannot be considered by the CBI and has to be jettisoned from the charge-sheet. The trial Court, on this reasoning would not be able to look into that part of the evidence. The purpose of the provisions of the DSPE Act is to facilitate the CBI in carrying out its investigations. It would, therefore, be counter-intuitive if the task of the CBI is frustrated beyond the point of practicality. If in every such case the investigation is stalled because of the absence of sanction of a particular State other than the State where the case is registered, then the scheme of Sections 5 and 6 of the DSPE Act and their purpose would be defeated - In the present case, the actions of the Petitioner spoken of in the charge sheet, though performed at Raipur, were pursuant to the criminal conspiracy entered into between some of the accused in New Delhi. According to the CBI, those actions of the Petitioner were in continuation of and, in a sense, a completion of the criminal acts that were planned to be undertaken in that conspiracy. They are inseparable from the main criminal conspiracy itself. According to the CBI, it is not, therefore, as if separate and distinct offences unconnected with the main criminal conspiracy in New Delhi were undertaken by the Petitioner in Raipur. The CBI’s case is that offence of criminal conspiracy for which the case has been registered was committed not in Chhattisgarh but in New Delhi. That explains why the CBI has registered the case in New Delhi. The Court finds merit in the contention of the CBI that merely because the further acts pursuant to that criminal conspiracy were performed by the co-accused in a place outside Delhi, in this case Raipur, there would be no necessity for the CBI to seek the prior sanction of Respondent No.3 under Section 6 DSPE Act to take further steps to investigate that case in Raipur or other places in Chhattisgarh - Whether the charge-sheet makes out a case against the Petitioner for the framing of charges as prayed for by the CBI is a question that has to be considered by the learned Special Judge on merits and in accordance with law. Petition dismissed.
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