MANSIDH SURIA Vs. REPUBLIC OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner assails the judgment and order passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Puri, upholding the order of conviction and sentences passed against him by the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhubaneswar, under Sections 420, 468 and 467 read with Section 471, Penal Code (for short, 'the Code') with, sentences of rigorous imprisonments for a term of three years under Section 420, for term of three years under Section 468 and for a term of five years under Section 467 read with Section 471 of the Code with a direction that the sentences would run concurrently.

(2.) THE petitioner, it was alleged, while serving at the relevant time as an Assistant Postmaster in the Rourkela Post Office in the district of Sundargarh, cheated the Government of India and committed forgery and used a false document as genuine by falsely scribing an application (Ext. 26/3) purported to be that of Trilokya Chand Bhumji ('the deceased', for short), although, the person was by then dead, who had purchased four National Plan Savings Certificates (for short, 'NPS Certificates') for a total sum of Rupees 1,030/ - from the Rourkela post office by presenting the application (Ext. 2) on July 31, 1957 and had been granted a preliminary receipt (Ext. 1) as NPS Certificates were not available then in the post office and the detection of the commission of the offences by the petitioner was made in the following circumstances. After collecting Ext. 1, the holder of the certificates made it over to his mother (P. W. 4) and forgot to collect the certificates before his death which occurred sometime in 1966. After his death, his widow (P. W. 5) withdrew the amounts lying at the credit of her deceased husband in his pass book account (Ext. 28) from Panposh post office in 1973 with the help of P. W. 6, a Postal Overseer of her community. But the mother of the deceased did not take prompt steps to obtain the NPS Certificates or to encash the amount covered thereunder. In 1976, P. W. 4 showed Ext, 1 to P. W. 6 and enquired of him as to whether she could get any money on the basis thereof. P, W. 6 took the receipt to the co -accused Narayan Das (acquitted), then serving as an Assistant Postmaster of the Rourkela Post Office in charge of the Savings Bank Section, who promised to look into the matter and after about a month, he returned the receipt and informed P. W. 6 that the money covered thereunder had already been disbursed on the application of a person who had been identified by the petitioner. P. W. 4 gave out before P. W. 6 that she had not received any payment under Ext, 1. Then P. W. 6 drafted two complaints (Exts. 9 and 10) and sent the same after obtaining the left thumb impressions of P. W. 5 to the Postmaster -General, Orissa, and the Superintendent of Post Offices, Sundargarh Division, for an enquiry into the matter without acceding to the request made by the petitioner and the co -accused Narayan Das not to bring the matter to the notice of the higher authorities. The Superintendent of Post Offices deputed P. W. 15, the Inspector of Post Offices, to hold an enquiry and it was noticed by P. W. 15 that the application (Ext. 26/3) purported to be that of the person who had purchased the NPS Certificates had been filled in at the Uditnagar Sub -Post Office by the petitioner and he had attested the thumb mark therein and the co -accused Narayan Das had certified that the NPC Certificates were actually standing in the name of the deceased and that payment could be made to the applicant on proper identification. After this certificate was given, the application was returned to the Uditnagar Sub -post Office where the sub -postmaster A. K. Misra, who also stood trial as a co -accused but was acquitted, released the money covered under Exts. 3 to 6(NPS Certificates) in favour of the person who had impersonated himself on November 26, 1974, after the person was identified by the petitioner to be the person entitled to receive the money P. W. 15 had obtained the written statements of thepetitioner; and the other two co -accused persons are Ext. 38/1 was the alleged written statement made by the petitioner wherein he had stated that he had identified the applicant, at the instance of the Co -accused Narayan Das. When the enquiry by the postal authorities was on, the Central Bureau of Investigation got scent of this matter and after the first information report (Ext. 53) was drawn up by an Inspector of the Central Bureau of Investigation, P. W. 20, a sub -Inspector took charge of the investigation and on its completion, placed a chargesheet against the petitioner and two other co -accused persons under Sections 120B, 420, 467, 471, and 477 of the Code.

(3.) TO bring home the charges to the petitioner and the other co -accused persons, the prosecution examined twenty witnesses. The petitioner and the co -accused persons had pleaded not guilty to the charges and the case of the petitioner was that he had not committed any of the offences alleged and charged.