BALWANTRAO ANANDRAO RAUT Vs. MOLHARRAO RAJAM DESAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two criminal appeals are filed by the original complainant who has failed in his prosecution of respondent No. 1 in both the appeals, hereinafter referred as the accused in Criminal Case Nos. 2229 and 2226 respectively of 1974. Instead of referring to the facts in relation to the appeal numbers, I will mention them with reference to criminal case numbers. The criminal case giving rise to Criminal Appeal No. 1219 of 1976 was in time earlier than the one giving rise to Criminal Appeal No. 1218 of 1976. Fortunately, the facts in both the cases are analogous; common question of law is involved; and the accused in both the cases is the same.

(2.) In Criminal Case No. 2226 of 1974 the complainant one Laxmanrao Chavan was, at the relevant time, serving as professor in Gokhale College at Kolhapur, which was being run by the "Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, Kolhapur." The accused was the Principal of the said college. The basis of the prosecution was the allegation that the accused had deducted a sum equivalent to Rs. 2341.64 from the salary of the complainant and had misappropriated the same. This apparently amounted to an offence under section 403 of the Indian Penal Code. A charge either as alternative or in addition to, the one mentioned above was also thrown on him for the purpose of establishing an offence punishable under section 409 of the Indian Penal Code that is criminal breach of trust. The charge as framed by the learned trial Magistrate, however, mentions only an offence punishable under section 409 of the Indian Penal Code. It was thus incumbent on the prosecution to prove on the threshold itself that there was entrustment of the amount to the accused in respect of which the accused is said to have committed criminal breach of trust.

(3.) In Criminal Case No. 2229 of 1974 the amount in respect of which criminal breach of trust was alleged to have been committed by the accused was in the sum of Rs. 3034.64 In that case, the complainant was one Raut who was working as a demonstrator in the same college at Kolhapur. The allegations made by the complainant in this case are in substance the same which formed the basis of the prosecution in Criminal Case No. 2226 of 1974 that is, the accused deducted the sum stated above from the salary of the complainant and has committed criminal breach of trust in respect of the same. The amounts so deducted in both the cases, it is alleged by the prosecution, were from the provident fund contributions made by the members of the staff of the college of which the accused was the Principal.