B H NARASIMHARAO Vs. GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, who in the Courts below was described as A-3, is the lone one out of the eight, who stands convicted for offences punishable under Ss. 120-B, 409 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code and under Sections 5(1) (c) and 5(1) (d) read with Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, whereunder he has been variously sentenced as disclosed in the judgment under appeal. Out of the original arraigned accused, A-1, A-6, A-7 and A-8 were acquitted by the Trial Court whereas A-2, A-4 and A-5 were acquitted by the High Court. The conviction of the appellant was maintained by the High Court by recording the following finding :

(2.) The High Court has also found that the appellant was the Head of the Telegraph Transfer Section of the Secunderabad Branch of the UCO Bank, and that with his active co-operation the fraud has materialsied thereby causing loss of money to the Bank entrusted to the management of the branch. Since A-3 was one of the officers handing the affairs of the branch office and as many as 19 telegraph transfers in question were found not to be genuine, the appellant was held guilty for being a party to the conspiracy. Therefore varied convictions and sentences of the appellant were confirmed giving rise to this appeal.

(3.) As is evident, the guilt of the appellant has been spelled out from his being the Head of the Telegraph Transfer Section on the basis that he was a co-constructively with the aid of Section 120-B, IPC, the requirement of Section 120-A, IPC defining 'criminal conspiracy' would have to be met. That provisions reads as follows :