Centre's Sanction U/S 188 CrPC Required Only When Entirety Of The Offence Is Committed Outside India: Kerala High Court

“A Three Judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Sartaj Khan v State of Uttarakhand (2022 LiveLaw (SC) 321) held that if the offence was not committed on its entirety, outside India, the matter would not come within the scope of Section 188 Cr.P.C. and there is no necessity of any sanction as mandated by the proviso to Section 188. In view of the settled law, the contention of the petitioner relying on Section 188 Cr.P.C. fails.”

The bench was dealing with an application seeking to quash the FIR registered against the petitioner, booked under Sections 406, 408, 420 and 467. Petitioner is alleged to have unauthorizedly withdrawn money from its employer in the Sultanate of Oman and deposited in his bank accounts in Kollam and Ernakulam.

The petitioner's case was that he had not misappropriated any amount and in any case, he said. the investigating agency had not obtained the sanction to investigate as required by the proviso to Section 188 of CrPC.

The Court said that in the proceedings instituted for quashing, the materials relied on by the petitioner should be of impeccable quality, which was not the case herein. The Court further observed that the petitioner failed to convince it that the allegation levelled against him in the prosecution records do not disclose the ingredients of the offences alleged.

The case was accordingly dismissed.

Counsel for Petitioner: Advocates C. Unnikrishnan, Vivek Nair P., Uthara A.S., Vijayakrishnan S. Menon

Counsel for Respondents: Public Prosecutor G Sudheer

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw Ker 302

Case Title: M. Amanulla Khan v Sajeena Vahab and Others

Case No: Crl.M.C. No. 5290/2019

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