MOHAN Vs. STATE REPRESENTED BY INSPECTOR OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner/accused in C.C. No. 3530 of 2014 was convicted by the learned VII Metropolitan Magistrate, George Town, Chennai, by judgment dtd. 27/1/2017 for the offence under Sec. 468, 473 and 420 IPC, sentencing him to undergo two years Simple Imprisonment for each of the offence and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000.00 for each count, in default to undergo one month Simple Imprisonment and for offence under Sec. 465 and 471 IPC sentencing him to undergo six months simple imprisonment for each of the offence. The learned XIX Additional Sessions Judge, City Civil Court, Chennai by judgment dtd. 31/8/2017 dismissed the appeal filed by the petitioner/accused by confirming the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial Court. Against which, the present revision petition is filed.

(2.) During the trial, on the side of the prosecution the trial Court examined P.W. 1 to P.W. 12 and marked Ex. P1 to Ex. P44. On the side of the defence, no witness was examined and no documents were marked.

(3.) The gist of the complaint/Ex. P2 is that the petitioner who is employed as Assistant in the office of Administrator General and Official Trustee [AG&OT] submitted loan application with forged signature and fabricated seal to the Chennai City Judicial Employees Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society Limited. On verification, it was found by the Cashier of AG&OT that the quantum of monthly deductions varied and found suspicious. The recovery of principal and interest with regard to the accused Mohan was increasing every three months. The said Mohan had not submitted any loan application through AG&OT office. Hence, a letter dtd. 29/8/2005 was addressed to the Special Officer of the Thrift Society to send the consolidated loan application of S. Mohan for the past one year, i.e. from August 2004 onwards. The Special Officer vide letter dtd. 30/8/2005 replied with five loan applications submitted by the above individual on various dates for the past one year. On verification of the said loan applications, it was noticed that the petitioner submitted the applications with forged signature and fabricated seal to the Society in convenient arrangement and collusion with Society officials. The procedure is that any application either loan or consolidation loan should be submitted by an individual to the Administrator General and after getting approval and signature, the application should be submitted to the Society for sanction of loan. The petitioner who is a Government servant committed serious offence by submitting the loan application containing forged signatures and fabricated seal of the office. Hence, complaint was lodged by P.W. 1/Head Clerk to the respondent. P.W. 12/Investigating Officer on receipt of the complaint examining the witnesses, collecting the loan application, documents, specimen signature of the officials, accused and the seal of the office, forwarded the same to Forensic expert/P.W. 9 and received the report/ Ex. P43. He further examined the Superintendent, Office Assistant of AG&OT as well as the Secretary and Special Officer of the Society, witness and surety to the loan application confirming that the accused is a beneficiary who submitted forged document knowing it to be forged and filed charge-sheet before the trial Court. The trial Court, on examination of the witnesses and documents found the petitioner guilty, convicted him and the Lower Appellate Court confirmed the conviction as stated above.