The Kerala High Court on Thursday stayed further proceedings based on an order of Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-II for registering an FIR based on a complaint that Swapna Suresh, an accused in the gold smuggling case, had been threatened not to disclose names and details of higher ups who are involved in the gold smuggling and Life Mission cases to any investigation agency.
When the petition filed by the State government challenging the magistrate’s order came up before Justice V.G. Arun, Senior Public Prosecutor Suman Chakravarthy submitted that the complaint filed by Neyyattinkara P. Nagaraj was based on surmises and conjunctures. There was no material to substantiate his allegations in the complaint.
In fact, the complainant was not in any way connected with the allegation. Besides, no offence had been made in the complaint warranting a directive to forward the complaint to the police under Section 156(3) of the Cr.PC for registration of an FIR. The magistrate court's order showed that the order was passed without application of mind, the government prosecutor submitted.
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