NIRll to follow the guidelines enunciated in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Biharl Thus pleaded for granting similar relief to meet his hardship

Petition under section lza gr BNSS praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds ot crimiiaiijelition,the uigh c"r.t ;ly o. pleased to stay ail further proceeaings inouJinl the arrest of the petitioner in reration to crime vide FrR No rce oi zozs J"tEa'osloolzo2s 0n the fire of the Police station Bhainsa Rurar, Nirmar oisirici-p""oirg disposar of the above Criminal petition This Petition coming on for hearing,upon perusing the Memorandum of Grounds of criminar petition and upon hearing the arguments of sri pASHAM MoHlrH ,Advocate for the petitioner and sri JTTHENDER RAo ,EERAMALLA, ADD,ONAL puBlrc pRosECUTOR on beharf of the Respond"r, *".., a i-', The Court made the following ORDER: "-ywt d THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE N.TUKARAMJI CRIMINAL P ETITION No. 7060 OF 2025 OROER This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 528 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short ,BNSS, 2023,) seeking quashment of the proceedings in Crime No.l6g of 2025 of Bhainsa Rural Police Station, Nirmal District, against the petitioner. 2. The petitioner is sole accused in Crime No..l6g ot 2025 registered for the offences punishable under Sections 316(5), 316(2), 318(4) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (for short ,BNS, 2023'). 3. Heard Mr. Pasham Mohith, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr.Jithender Rao Veeramalla, learned Additional public Prosecutor representing the respondent Nos..l and 2. 4. The prosecution case in brief is that the petitioner is an individual and is a partner cum owner of Rice Mill under the name and style of 'M/s. Sri Venkateshwara Agro Rice Mill and engaged in the business of milling of paddy. The Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (for short, 'TGSCSCL,) entered into agreement with the petitioner's firm for procuring and milling of paddy and to deliver back the custom milling rice. lt is alleged that the TGSCSCL 2 Nl r_J (llu t_it)60_2025 Department had conducted inspection in the petitioner's rice mill on

05.06.2025 and found 4342 MTs of paddy missing. Thus, a police Report was lodged against the petitioner for misappropriation of stocks and violation of the agreement and for recovery of the amounts.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that as per the agreement, the de facto complainant and petitioner would be in joint custody of the paddy. Further pleaded that the Government did not properly store the paddy and for natural reasons some of the quantity was damaged. Howsoever, as per the agreement, the dispute has to be placed before the Arbitrator and without such an effort, the Government on its own concluding misappropriation and initiating prosecution without any conclusive findings on relevant aspects alleging criminality is untenable. That apart, the petitioner is ready to cooperate with the investigation and is intending to see the process through. He further pointed out that the coordinate Bench of this Court yrde Criminal Petition Nos..l 574, 1575 of 2025, 895 and 12037 of 2024 held that Section 316(5) of BNS, 2023 woutd not attract in the circumstances of the case and directed the investigating agency for issuance of 35(3) of BNSS, 2023 notice and , 3 NIRll to follow the guidelines enunciated in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Biharl . Thus pleaded for granting similar relief to meet his hardship. 6. Learned Additional Public prosecutor would submit that it is a clear case of misappropriation, the petitioner and similarly placed other rice millers have caused loss of crores of rupees to the State and by the direction of issuance of notice, it is becoming difficult in proceeding with the investigation for want of cooperation from the petitioner. That apart, a Coordinate Bench of this Court in Crl.P.Nos.3933 ot 2024, 3305 of 2024 and 3306 of 2024, having considered the submissions dismissed the criminal petitions. The petitioner herein is also facing self same accusaticns, therefore, pending investigation proceedings, this petition has to be dismissed. Further submits that, if the Court considers otherwise, directing the petitioner for depositing considerable amount against the complaint mentioned loss I have perused the materials on record.

7. 8. Admittedly, the petitioner is a rice miller and running an industry under the name and style of ,M/s. Sri Venkak:shwara Agro Rice Mill. lt is clear by the averments of the complaint that TGSCSCL Department had entered into agreeme:nt with the ' (2014) 8 scc 273 4 \Ilr petltioner for carrying out milling of paddy. Further, in the complaint, the misappropriation has been alleged Whereas the petitioner,s plea of joint custody and the defences like natural decay, loss due to rmproper stocking of the materials are to be examined in the such position, any direction to furnish security investigation. ln would be premature.

9. Further, having regard to the nature of the offences and depth of allegations against the petitioner and except the alleged offence under Section 316(5) of BNS,2023, rest of the accusations are punishable with an imprisonment up to seven years and considering the fact that the petitioner is running rice mill industry and the Government's contract is disclosing petitioner,s well rooted place in the society and the aspects that the prosecution has not raised any impediment in securing the presence of the petitioner for investigation and the readiness of the petitioner to cooperate with the investigation, without entering into merits and keeping all prerogatives of the investigation open and to maintain parity, the petitioner is directed to appear before the sHo, Bhainsa Rulral police Station, Nirmal Diskict within a week from the date of receipt of a copy of this order, whereupon, the rnvestigating officer shal issue notice on the petitioner under Section 35 (3) of BNSS, 2023 in Crime No.16B of 2O2S // and take up further proceedings as per the guiderines of Arnesh Kumar :o=., -l 5 Ntt y. Stafe of Bihal. ln unison, the petitioner is directed to cooperate with the investigation. 10. With this direction, this Criminal petition is disposed of. Pending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand closed. r //TRUE COPY// SD/- N. SRIHARI PEPUTY REGISTRAR ,\ i , \. .L,o*-oFFrcER ' TheStationHouseOfficer,BhainsaRuralPoliceStation'NirmalDistrtct' The District Manager, TSCSCL, Nirmal, Office at Priyadarshinr Nagar' Nirmal' Telangana 504106. Two CCs to Public Prosecutor, High Court for the State ol Telangana at Hyderabad. (OUT) One CC to SRl. PASHAM MOHITH, Advocate IOPUC] Two CD CoPies To,

2. J-

4. q kul/gh 2 lzor+; o scc zz: t { HIGH COURT DATED:13/06/2025 . HE Sr4 I4: o o ((\ 1E JUN 206 2 ., i O1 ORDER CRL.PETITION No.7060 of 2025 DISPOISNG OF THE CRL.PETITION. 6t'