NIRMAL PRASAD BARUA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a revision petition filed by one Nirmal Prasad Barua under the provisions of Section 439, Cr.P.C. in a case in which he was convicted Under Section 409, I.P.C. and sentenced to R.I. for 12 months and to pay a fine of Rs. 600 or in default to undergo further R.I. for 6 months by Mvi. A. Rahman, Magistrate of the First Class, Gauhati. On appeal, his conviction, and sentence were confirmed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, L.A.D. Apparently the learned Additional Sessions Judge was informed that the petitioner was undergoing a sentence of imprisonment passed in another case, and he, therefore, directed that the sentence of imprisonment passed in this case was to run concurrently with any sentence of imprisonment that the applicant may be already undergoing in another case.

(2.) The case for the prosecution was that the petitioner, as the Agent of the Gauhati Bank Limited at Gauhati, obtained a sum of Rs. 13,000 from the Gauhati branch of the Calcutta National Bank Limited by negotiating a cheque, dated 16.7.1947, drawn by the petitioner on the Calcutta Branch of the Central Bank of India Limited. The petitioner personally received the sum of Rs. 13,000/- from the Gauhati branch of the Calcutta National Bank Limited but failed to account for the same and has, therefore, committed criminal breach of trust.

(3.) The point taken by Mr. Ghose for the petitioner before us is that the examination of the petitioner by the Trying Magistrate was not an examination in accordance with the provisions of Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The learned Additional Sessions Judge, in the course of nig judgment, criticized the learned Magistrate's examination of the petitioner in these terms: