STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH Vs. KHUNNALAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) (CAV) - This appeal has been filed by the State against the judgment dated 11.08.1999 passed by Judicial Magistrate First Class, Ambikapur in Criminal Case No. 317/1998 acquitting the accused/respondent of the charge under Section 420 IPC.

(2.) Facts of the case in brief are that the respondent/accused had taken Rs. 22,000/- from Parmender (PW-1) and Rs. 31,500/- from Tapeshwar (PW-2) who were prosecuting their studies by staying at Ambikapur, in the name of providing employment and when they demanded back the money, he kept on beguiling on some pretext or the other. Payment by PW-1 and PW-2 is said to have been made to the respondent/accused in the presence of B.K. Rajwade (PW-6), Ram Prasad (PW-5), Sukhnandan (PW-4) and Ganesh (PW-3). Ultimately when the job as promised was not provided nor the money was returned, a written report (Ex.P-1) was lodged at Police Station, Ambikapur and based on that FIR (Ex.P-2) was registered against the respondent/accused for an offence under Section 420 IPC. After investigation, the challan was filed by the police under Section 420 IPC followed by framing of charge accordingly.

(3.) So as to hold the accused/respondent guilty, prosecution has examined 07 witnesses in support of its case. Statement of the accused/respondent has also been recorded under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 in which he denied the allegations made against him and pleaded innocence and false implication in the case.