RAVINDRA PRATAP SINGH Vs. RASHID AHMED AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this criminal appeal the judgment and order of acquittal dated 21st November, 2007 passed by the Ld. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (for short Ld. ACJM), Durgapur in CR 116 of 2000 arising out of Andal Police Post Case No. 4 of 2000 is under challenge. The appellant before this Court is a Railway Officer and, according to the original complaint, on 10th of April, 2000 at about 19:00 hours a secret information was received by the complainant, Tarak Banerjee, Inspector of the Railway Protection Force (for short RPF), Andal that one wagon bearing No. ER/BCXC 39780 was being loaded at Andal Railway Yard for movement to Bally. Acting on the secret information the complainant -Banerjee along with other Railway Officers raided the departure yard and, on checking the doors of the wagon, found the same to be locked with seals and 'nut bolts'. It could be ascertained from initial enquiry that one M/s. Yogesh Enterprise of 135/1, Girish Ghosh Road, Belurmath, Howrah purchased about 42 mt of auctioned railway materials on the 16th of March, 2000 and delivery of the auctioned materials was fixed at Andal Depot on 16th of April 2000. At the time of delivery the following Railway Officers namely, Md. Rashid Ahmed - Depot Store Keeper, Om Prakash Yadav - Stock Verifier and Head Constable R.J. Singh of RPF Post, who are also the respondent Nos. 1, 2 and 3, were present.

(2.) It could also be ascertained that one Ajay Sharma, duly authorised by a Special Power -of -Attorney from M/s. Yogesh Enterprise (supra), attended the delivery as agent of the auction purchasers. Upon weighment of the wagon on 11th April, 2000 it showed a weight of 89.23 mt thereby indicating that minus the weight of the empty wagon the railway materials loaded were to the tune of 61 mt, i.e. around 19 mt in excess of the auctioned delivery of 42 mt.

(3.) The complaint further goes on to state that loaded materials were unloaded from the wagon and, during checking, huge quantities of railway materials which were not a part of the auction were found to have been loaded in excess. Accordingly, the materials were seized and the auction purchasers namely, one Govind Agarwal, R.S. Prasad and Ajay Sharma, all of M/s. Yogesh Enterprise (supra), were charged with violation of Sec. 3 of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966 (for short the RPUP Act).