PRAYAGRAJ, Nov. 30 -- The Allahabad high court has quashed criminal proceedings pending against UP minister Daya Shankar Mishra 'Dayalu' at a Varanasi court for alleged violation of model code of conduct and damage to public property during the 2012 UP assembly elections. It was alleged in the FIR dated January 11, 2012 lodged by a police sub-inspector Narendra Singh at Kotwali Sadar police station that the then Congress candidate Daya Shankar Mishra 'Dayalu' had installed a large election campaign hoarding tied to an electric poll, which amounted to violation of mode code of conduct and damage to public property. At that point of time, Daya Shankar Mishra was a Congress party candidate from the city south assembly seat of Varanasi. Allowing the petition filed by Mishra, justice Dinesh Pathak in the judgment dated November 28 observed, "No prima facie case is made out against the present applicant for the alleged offences for which the present applicant has been summoned to face the trial. "Even witnesses have simply reiterated the version of the FIR. More so, no member of the public or official of the electricity department or local body have been investigated to substantiate the allegation made in the FIR." "It would be an abuse of the process of court to allow any action on the basis of the FIR in question and it would result in injustice and prevent cause of justice. "The allegations made in the FIR are absurd and inherently improbable for the purposes of compelling the present applicant to face the trial," the court said....