TARINI KUMAR PANDAY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant was tried by the Judge, City Sessions Court with the aid of a jury under Sections 120B/ 466/420, I.P.C. and under Section 466 for forging two documents and also under Section 420 I.P.C. on two counts. He was unanimously found guilty under all the charges and the learned Judge agreeing with and accepting the said verdict sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for 5 years on each charge to run concurrently.

(2.) The prosecution story was that the appellant who is a clerk in the Eastern Railway Office at Kailaghat Street used to reside at Howrah where he was acting as private tutor to the children of the family of Radhesyam Tekriwalla and P.W. 13 Satyanarain Tekriwalla who were residing at Howrah but carrying on business at 203/1 Harrison Road, Calcutta. One Bilas Rai Lundia, P.W. 8 is a partner of the Tekriwallas and he also resided at Howrah and looked after the affairs of the Tekriwallas at 203/1 Harrison Road. Towards the end of May, 1955 the appellant told Bilas Rai Lundia that two money orders for Rs. 500/- and Rs. 600/- intended for the appellant would come in the name of Radhesyam Tekriwalla and Satyanarain Tekriwalla respectively. The appellant requested Bilas Rai Lundia to accept those two money orders and hand over the moneys to him. The appellant wrote out two letters of authority authorising Radhesyam Tekriwalla and Satyanarain Tekriwalla to accept the two money orders and made over the letters of authority to Bilas Rai Lundia P.W. 8. On 3-6-1956 two money orders of the value of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 600/- actually came in the names of Radhesyam Tekriwalla and Satya-narain Tekriwalla and Bilas Rai Lundia accepted the two money orders and on 4-6-1955 made over the moneys to the appellant on taking two receipts from him. In due course the Audit office of the Postal Department found that the two money orders in question purporting to bear Nos. 2225 and 2226 both dated 31-5-1955 and which purported to have been sent from Madrassa Post Office, Calcutta were bogus money orders and contained forged signatures of the Post Master, Gurudas Mukherjee, P.W. 11 of the Madrassa Post Office. The money orders however bore true seal stamps of the Madrassa Post Office. It was also found that no money orders bearing these two numbers 2225 and 2226 were ever issued from the Madrassa Post Office and the book of the money order receipts which contained these two receipts had not been issued from the G.P.O. to the Madrassa Post Office. On a comparison of the advice portion of the two money order forms with the writings of the appellant in some papers of the Eastern Railway Office, where he serves, and also with the specimen writings of the appellant taken by the Police, it was found that the writings on the two money orders were in the hand-writing of the appellant.

(3.) The defence of the appellant was that he was falsely implicated in this case. It was also suggested that the two money orders in question were genuine money orders for which the remitter had deposited the moneys in the Madrassa Post Office but the employees of that Post Office particularly the Post Master and the Money Order clerk have mis-appropriated the moneys themselves. Along with this defence he has also suggested that he did not receive the two amounts at all. In his examination under Section 342, Cr. P. C. however he admitted that he had requested Bilas Rai Lundia to receive the two money orders and also gave him two letters of authority and had actually received the amounts from Bilas Rai Lundia. He however denied having written up the two money order forms or to have forged any portion of them. He admitted that the office files of the Eastern Railway office produced before the Court contained his handwritings but he challenged the specimen writings said to have been taken by the Police to be in his own handwriting. He added that Bindhyachal Singh, Packer of the Madrassa Post Office owed him Rs. 1,100/- and this Bindhyachal at the request of the appellant sent the two money orders in the name of the Tekriwallas and he accepted the money in good faith.