PRASANNA KUMAR MOHAPATRA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has been convicted under Section 409, I. P. C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 6 months and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-; in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of one month. The petitioner was the clerk of the Industrial School at Sambalpur between January 1950 and August 1953 and in that capacity was In charge of the accounts and cash dealings of the institution. The cash was kept in an iron chest and some loose money was kept in a separate hand box. The keys of both were in the custody of the petitioner. He used to make payments in accordance with payment orders made by the Superintendent in charge of the School. In 1952 the Superintendent (P. W. 1) checked the accounts and found certain irregularities including shortage of cash. He reported the matter to the Director of Industries in his letter Ex. 6 dated 8-5-1952 and an explanation was taken from the petitioner on 2-7-1952. Ex. 7 is the explanation given by the petitioner on 8-7-1952 praying to be excused for the irregularity. In April 1953, the Superintendent wanted to check the accounts again, but found that the cash book was not up-to-date. A month later, when he again wanted to verify the cash the petitioner represented that the key of the iron chest had been mislaid and that he was trying to trace it out. Sometime thereafter P. W. 1 received a letter from the Director of Industries pointing out that his office had withdrawn excess amounts under 'contingencies' from the Bank. P. W. 1 thereupon put a seal on the Iron chest and requested the Director of Industries to depute a man to check the accounts of the School. The Head Assistant of the office of the Director of Industries was then sent and on 1-8-1953, the iron chest was opened with a key prepared in the office by Carpenter Allauddin (P. W. 5 ). The petitioner produced two more keys, one being of the padlock and the other of the hand box. On opening the iron chest a sum of 13 annas was found and the hand box contained a sum of Rs. 469/ -. The book balance of the institution on 29-7-1953 was Rs. 1611/2/9. The petitioner then gave a statement explaining the state of accounts and sought to explain the shortage to the extent of Rs. 396/13/0 and undertook to account for the balance of Rs. 744/8/9. This explanation is marked Ex. 1. P. W. 1 found vouchers to cover an expenditure of Rs. 42/13/0, besides service postage stamps of the value of Rs. 24/-, amounting in all to Rs. 66/13/0 not entered in the cash book. After deducting this amount he found that the sum defalcated by the petitioner was Rs. 1074/8/9. He did not believe the statement of the accused in Ex. 1 in which he offered an explanation for the shortage to the extent of Bs. 396/13/0.

(2.) THE petitioner was charged with having misappropriated a sum of Rs. 1074/8/9 and committed an offence under Section 409, I. P. C. The plea taken by the petitioner at, the trial was that he never handled cash and was only maintaining accounts and that the keys of the iron chest had never been with him. He further pleaded that he wrote Ex. 1 to the dictation of P. W. 1. Both the Courts below have disbelieved the defence case and found that the accused was throughout in charge of the keys of the iron chest as well as of the hand box, and that P. W. 1 was negligent in checking the accounts. They also found that P. W. 1 was never in charge of the cash or the keys of the iron sale.

(3.) IN revision, Mr. . Acharya appearing for the petitioner attacked the findings on the very grounds taken before the Courts below. After having heard him at length I am satisfied that there is no substance in his contention that P. W. 1 is the real culprit and that the petitioner had never been entrusted with any cash,