Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Sambhaji Shiwaji Shinde and K.K. Sonawane

JUDGMENT

Sambhaji Shiwaji Shinde, J.

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard finally with the consent of the learned counsel appearing for the parties.

2. The brief facts as disclosed in the application, are as under:-

"The applicant is working on the post of Executive Engineer, Water Supply, Department, Zilla Parishad, Yavatmal. Earlier the applicant was posted as Executive Engineer, Zilla Parishad, Nanded from 12.07.2012 till 31.07.2015. The applicant was transferred from Nanded to Yavatmal on 31st July, 2015. After transfer of the applicant from Nanded, one Shri Navdunge resumed the duties as Executive Engineer at Nanded. He issued the work order on 7th May, 2016, and allotted some work to one Vitthal Maruti Waghmare (deceased), who was working in Sub-Division, Minor Irrigation on CRT basis.

Shri Nivdunge, Executive Engineer came to be arrested on 10th August, 2016 in ACB trap while accepting bribe of Rs. 50,000/- and accordingly, Crime No. 78/2016 came to be registered against him at Vajirabad Police Station, Nanded. One Shri Waghmare Vithal (deceased) was doing the work along with said Nivdunge during the relevant period and hence, ACB Officer had called Shri. Vithal Waghmare (deceased) for interrogation and he was asked to submit files regarding the offence registered against Shri Nivdunge."

It is alleged that, on 22nd August, 2016, Vitthal Maruti Waghmare, committed suicide by hanging himself in the office of Executive Engineer, leaving behind Suicide Note, thereby stating that he was working on CRT basis in Sub Division, Minor Irrigation and he was assigned heavy workload, which he was unable to carry out. It is alleged that, he has no grudge or complaint against anybody. It is alleged that, he has committed the suicide on his own, and nobody can be held responsible for his act of suicide. After receiving information of commission of suicide by Vithal Waghmare, his relatives and the workers gathered on the spot and pressurized the police officers to register the offence against Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad. So also the relative of the deceased refused to take dead body of Waghmare unless the offence is registered. It is the case of the applicant that the police department, under political pressure registered the offence at about 23.05 hours on 23rd August, 2016 i.e. after 48 hours, which is after thought, wherein one Police Constable namely Gangadhar Sakharam Shinde i.e. respondent No. 3, is shown as complainant. When applicant came to know through newspaper that such offence is registered against him, he filed the application for anticipatory bail before the Sessions Judge, Nanded and the Sessions Judge granted anticipatory bail on 6th September, 2016.

3. The learned counsel appearing for the applicant submits that, the applicant is working as Executive Engineer in Water Supply Division. Said deceased Vithal Waghmare was not working directly under the control of the applicant and no work was allotted to said Waghmare by the applicant. The learned counsel submits that, as the deceased Waghmare was not subordinate to the applicant, therefore, there was no occasion to allot some work to him or to extract some work from him. The learned counsel further submits that, even reading of the suicide note as it is, it does not disclose any grudge and grievance against the present applicant nor it discloses any cognizable offence, more particularly, the offence under section 306 of the IPC. The learned counsel submits that, lodging of the complaint is only misuse of process of law, particularly by the Police Officer so as to run away from the public pressure and to save the skin of police department. The learned counsel further submits that, the import of ........