STATE GOVERNMENT Vs. JANG BAHADUR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the State Government against the acqittal of the four respondents who were charged under Section 409, Penal Code, either substantively or as abettors. The four respondents belonged to the railway staff stationed at Bilaspur. Respondent l, Jang Bhadur Singh, was the Station Master at the time. Respondents S. G. Mule, M. G. Kelkat and H. E. Roy were goods, assistant goods and inward-shed clerks respectively,

(2.) A wagon of potatoes in 135 bags was received from Jhusi, O. T. Railway, on 23-4-1918 and was unloaded and kept on the goods shed platform on 25-4-1918, It was consigned to Belt, and the consignor did not turn up till 28-1-1918. On that date, according to the prosecution, the consignment was examined by Dr. M M. Sinha Assistant Surgeon, Railway Hospital, Bilaspur,. and was declared to be offensive and unfit for human consumption. The Station Master there upon ordered the potatoes to be destroyed, and a communication was sent to the authorities concerned about it. The prosecution case is that the potatoes were not rotten and a fail quantity of them could be salvaged and sold. The accused are alleged to have conspired together and to have sold them for Rs. 800 to one Sulaiman Kachchi (p. w. 14) with a view to making a private gain for themselves.

(3.) THE consignor's agent Chedi (P. W. l) arrived on the scene on 29. 11918, a little time after Sulaiman had removed the potatoes to his godown and other places. He produced an indemnity bond before respondent 4 H. K. Roy and claimed the consignment. H. K. Roy endorsed on the indemnity bond that the consignment had been destroyed. Chedi thereupon made inquiries and found that the potatoes bad not in fact been destroyed but had been sold to Sulaiman Kachchi. He made a report to the police,which is Ex. P-1 P-1a. The police thereupon visited the house of Sulaiman Kachchi and seized from him a register of accounts (Art. A) and the bags of potatoes which were found lying in three different places.