Cheating -- Custody of Children Obtained by Deception -- Does not amount to inducement to deliver property
(i) Indian Penal Code, 1860, S.420 -- Cheating -- Custody of Children Obtained by Deception -- Does not amount to inducement to deliver property -- Cheating requires dishonest or fraudulent inducement to deliver property or a valuable security. Where what is alleged to have been obtained by deception is temporary custody of children, this does not satisfy the requirement of delivery of property, and mere use of words such as cheated or dishonestly induced cannot substitute for the absent ingredients of the offence. (ii) Indian Penal Code, 1860, S.406 -- Criminal Breach of Trust -- Custody of Children -- Does not constitute entrustment of property -- Criminal breach of trust requires entrustment of property followed by dishonest misappropriation. Custody of children, however serious the underlying dispute, cannot by itself constitute entrustment of property so as to attract this offence. (iii) Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, S.482 -- Quashing of FIR -- Child Custody Dispute Framed as Criminal Offence -- Continuation amounts to abuse of process -- Where the underlying dispute is essentially one concerning custody of children and the FIR's own allegations do not disclose the ingredients of the offences charged, continuation of criminal proceedings amounts to abuse of process. This applies even where charges have already been framed, since framing of charge does not preclude quashing where the basic ingredients are absent on a plain reading of the allegations.
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