KISHORE CHANDRA PANDA Vs. REPUBLIC OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present appeal is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and sentence dtd. 27/3/1995 passed by learned Special Judge, Bhubaneswar in T.R.No.21 of 1986.

(2.) The accused-Appellant namely, Kishore Chandra Panda was employed as Branch Manager of Agriculture Banking Division (ABD) in State Bank of India, Purusottampur Branch during the year 1984. He was charged for commission of offence under Ss. 5(2) read with Sec. 5(1)(c)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and Ss. 409, 477-A of the Indian Penal Code and has been convicted for all such offences and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year along with payment of fine of Rs.15,000.00 with default sentence of simple imprisonment for one year under Ss. 5(2) of the P.C. Act. No separate sentence was directed for commission of offences under the I.P.C.

(3.) The prosecution case is that, the accused worked as Manager, ABD in the State Bank of India at Purusottampur Branch from 10/4/1981 to 10/10/1984. Being the Manager of the Branch, he is primarily responsible for grant of loans from the stage of recommendation, sanction and repayment till closing of loan accounts. During his incumbency as such, he sanctioned loans to different loanees and in the process of transactions he received a sum of Rs.14,918.50 paisa on 2/7/1984, 9/7/1984, 10/7/1984 and 11/7/1984 from different loanees namely, Smt.Jhari Behera (P.W.8), Sahadev Goud (P.W.5), Jharia Behera (P.W.4), A. Basu Dora (P.W.3), A Basudev Dora (P.W.26), Smt.A.Saraswati Ama, Mangulu Goud, Smt.E.Kundan Ama (P.W.7), K.S.Reddy, G.R.Rao Dora, Musa Goud, Gantei Goud (P.W.22), P.Pati Dora, Smt.Pata Behera, D.P.Dora (P.W.1), Hadu Das, Budhia Das (P.W.18), Madhu Das (P.W.12) and Kukta Das towards repayment of their loan amounts. But without accounting for the same in the relevant registers and documents maintained in the names of above loanees in the bank, the accused misappropriated the same, and in order to conceal such misappropriation he prepared false Agriculture Term Loan (ATL) debit vouchers and debited the subsidy amount, Transfer Credit Vouchers (TCV) for like amount collected from the loanees showing same dates and credited to the respective loan accounts, knowingly the fact that due subsidy amounts were already credited to those accounts. This was detected subsequently. Upon detection of the same, an internal inquiry was conducted by T.K. Das (P.W.27), the then Administrative Officer in the Regional Office at Bhubaneswar who submitted his report against the Appellant. The F.I.R. was lodged on 30/9/1985 and P.W.32, the then Inspector of C.B.I. conducted investigation and submitted the charge-sheet.