PUBLIC PROSECUTOR Vs. K M VEDANTAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused was charged under three counts under Section 420, I.P.C., and was convicted by the Court of the Joint First Class Magistrate, Coonoor, and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 300 for each of the three offences, in default to undergo rigorous Imprisonment for three months. In appeal the Additional Sessions Judge of Coimbatore set aside the conviction. The Public Prosecutor preferred the above appeal.

(2.) The ease of the prosecution may be briefly stated as follows. The accused was the highest bidder for the year 1947-48 at the auction of minor forest produce in Ooty, Seegur and Mudumalai ranges. The amount of his bid was Rs. 10,750, and he paid 25 per cent of the bid amount, that is Rs. 2,887-8-0, on 25th June 1947 and 26th June 1947. He represented to P.W. 1 and her father P.W. 3 that he urgently required money for depositing the balance of the bid amount with the forest department and that P.W. 1 believing his representations lent him a sum of Rs. 5,600 on three promissory notes dated 8th July 1947, 17th July l947 and 19th August 1947, Exs. P. 2, P. 3 and P. 4 respectively. He also represented that he had 10 tons of sandal wood worth Rs. 13,000 and that he had sold sandalwood worth Rs. 7,000 to one Sarobji and that he had not received the money yet from him. Relying upon those two representations the accused fraudulently, with no intention of repaying the amount, committed the offence of cheating.

(3.) The offence of cheating is defined by Section 415 of the Indian Penal Code. It reads: