Can I lodge a complaint against a person to whom an FIR was lodged for another offence in 2021. I lodged a first information report against a person who was my employee. He was deputed to clear all goods imported from the United States of America. My company is doing business in electronic goods assembled in the USA. That employee was indulged in false trade and mixed huge goods made in China. When that employee came to the company's knowledge immediately an FIR was lodged against him. That case is pending. Recently I came to know that he had manipulated the balance sheets of the company and made several false entries. He had manipulated the funds of the company and utilized it to establish his own company in China. I wanted to lodge a fresh complaint against him but my advocate says that there should not be more than one FIR in the same offence or the offence committed in the same transaction.
Asked from: Tamil Nadu
The employee in question has committed the offence of dishonest misappropriation of property during the period of his employment under you. You have already initiated a criminal case for the offence of cheating, which is a separate and distinct offence and bears no direct connection with the offence of misappropriation, except for the fact that both were committed while he was in your service.
In light of this, you are legally entitled to lodge a fresh complaint in respect of the offence of dishonest misappropriation of property. It is a settled legal principle that when a person commits multiple offences in the course of the same transaction or within a period of one year, he may be charged with and tried for all such offences jointly, provided those offences have been alleged in the same complaint or FIR.
However, this principle does not apply when the offences were not known or disclosed at the time of the original complaint. In your case, the offence of misappropriation came to your knowledge only recently, approximately four years after the earlier FIR was lodged. Since the two offences are distinct in nature and not part of the same complaint, you are well within your rights to initiate a separate criminal proceeding.
While filing the new complaint, it is essential that you explain the delay in lodging it. You should specifically mention in your complaint that you became aware of the said offence only recently, and provide any relevant circumstances or documentation that supports this assertion.
This explanation will help satisfy the court that the delay was reasonable and justified, and that you acted promptly upon discovering the offence. Therefore, you can lodge a complaint against a person to whom an FIR was lodged for another offence.
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