In Brief
Two accused were charged with dacoity, criminal intimidation, and voluntarily causing hurt, arising from an alleged 2021 incident where they allegedly assaulted the complainant, took Rs. 2 lakh at gunpoint, and forced signatures on blank paper during a land dispute. The FIR was filed in 2022 without stating the incident's date or time. The Supreme Court held that even accepting the prosecution's account, the FIR failed to disclose dacoity—violence must be "for the end" of facilitating theft, but here it arose from a property dispute. The inordinate delay, vague allegations, absence of recovered money or forced documents, and lack of plausible explanation rendered the case inherently improbable and an abuse of process. The Court quashed the FIR and criminal proceedings, holding that an accused's criminal antecedents alone cannot override the failure to disclose offence ingredients.
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