(1.) The petitioner assails the judgments of conviction and sentence as passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jeypore and affirmed in appeal by the learned Sessions Judge, Koraput, Jeypore.
(2.) The petitioner stood charged for having dishonestly misappropriated primary gold, gold and silver ornaments, cash and other valuable properties worth around Rs. 1,50,000/- while he was in charge of Malkhana of Judicial Courts at Jeypore and acted as a Malkhana Clerk. As many as 46 witnesses were examined to further the prosecution case and volumnious documents were pressed into service by the prosecution. The primary stand of the petitioner was that there was no entrustment of the articles in question and therefore, the question of his having misappropriated them did not arise. The learned trial Magistrate found the petitioner guilty, convicted him under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short 'IPC') and sentenced him to five years' rigorous imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs. 5,000/- with a default sentence of one year's rigorous imprisonment. In appeal the conviction and sentence were maintained.
(3.) Main plank of the argument advanced by Mr. S. Misra (1), learned Counsel for the petitioner is that while hearing an appeal against conviction and sentence under Section 409, IPC, a detailed analysis of the evidence was imperative. Unfortunately, the learned Sessions Judge has disposed of the appeal in a cursory manner without dealing with various contentions raised by the accused and without even referring to various material aspects which were highlighted before him to show about improbability of the prosecution case. The learned Counsel for the State, however, supports the order passed by the learned Sessions Judge.