SURINDER DOGRA Vs. STATE THROUGH DIRECTOR CBI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been convicted concurrently by the Trial Court and the High Court, under the impugned judgment, for committing offences punishable under Ss. 420, 468 and 471 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) of 1989 ['RPC'] and Sec. 5 (1) (d) read with Sec. 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and has been sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months for each of the offence and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000.00 for each of the offence. The sentence has been directed to run concurrently.

(2.) At the relevant time, the appellant was posted as Traffic Superintendent, Indian Airlines, Jammu. The allegation against the appellant is that on 19/11/1997, while manning the ticket sale counter at Jammu Airport, he prepared an infant ticket in a fictitious name and tampered by way of forgery its flight coupon to make it an adult ticket, thereby obtaining pecuniary advantage for himself and causing loss to the Airlines.

(3.) Shri Romesh Malhotra, Manager (Vigilance), Indian Airlines lodged a complaint on 27/12/1997 on which CBI registered the present crime. It was stated in the complaint that M/s. Blue Bird Tours & Travel in connivance with Shri Rattan Chand and some unknown officials of Indian Airlines, Jammu were able to procure infant tickets from Indian Airlines office, which were tampered from infant tickets to adult tickets, from shorter distance to longer distance, from infant fare to adult fare and sold to various persons. One flight coupon in favour of Mr. Vikram for sector Jammu to Delhi was issued by Indian Airlines for travel on 19/11/1997 but when the auditor coupon of this ticket number was checked up it was found that the auditor coupon was in favour of master Azim (infant) and the sector was Jammu to Srinagar mentioned therein. It was subsequently revealed that the appellant was manning the ticket sale counter on the said date, and he prepared the infant ticket in a fictitious name called Master Azim and deposited Rs.102.00 with the Cashier vide pay-in-slip dtd. 19/11/1997. Subsequently, he tampered the flight coupon of the same ticket by way of forgery and made it an adult ticket in the name of one Vikram while changing the sector as Jammu-Delhi with fare at Rs.3105.00. Thus, the appellant enabled Mr. Vikram to travel to Delhi on the forged ticket by flight no. 422 dtd. 19/11/1997 on seat no. 14.