Tridib Sarkar v. State of West Bengal
2023 Cri LJ (NOC 307) 100
In the High Court of Calcutta
CRR 202/2022
Before Justice Bibek Chaudhuri
Decided on April 26, 2023

Relevancy of the Case: Quashing of chargesheet in a case involving identity theft and death threats

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 66C)
• The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Section 41A, 482)
• The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Section 380, 500, 506)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The defacto complainant received a phone call from the police station. The police informed him that someone had used his personal information to send death threats to A Banerjee.
• Subsequently, some unknown person started placing online orders via cash on delivery mode using the complainant’s details.
• The complainant also learned that certain grievances were filed using his details against the school’s headmaster, where the complainant was an assistant teacher.
• After this, the defacto complainant filed a complaint, and the police implicated the petitioner as an accused.
• The petitioner seeks the quashing of the FIR registered against him.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The petitioner’s counsel argued that CFSL professionals had searched for relevant keywords on his computer for any relevant search related to the offence. The results do not indicate sufficient evidence that the petitioner is guilty.
• The Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that online merchants have shared the IP addresses of relevant orders placed in the case-on-delivery mode. The investigation has ascertained that these IP addresses belong to the computer the petitioner was using.

Opinion of the Bench

• Upon perusing the evidence, it is insufficient to quash the chargesheet filed against the petitioner.
• It would not be prudent to quash the chargesheet at this stage as it contains vital information against the petitioner.

Final Decision

• The court dismissed the criminal revision.

Ananya Dixit, an undergraduate student at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, prepared this case summary during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in May/June 2023.