SOUMYNDRA NARAIN CHOWDHURY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this common judgment and order, I shall dispose of four criminal revision petitions registered as Criminal Revisions Nos. 62, 63, 64 and 65 of 1990. The petitioners have prayed for quashing the criminal proceeding being No. RC/3/8 CIU(C) registered under S. 120(B), I.P.C. read with S. 5(2) / 5(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and Ss. 468 and 471, I.P.C. pending before the learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class (Special Magistrate), Gauhati and registered as case C.R. Case No. 206C/85.

(2.) Briefly stated, facts are as follows: The petitioner in Criminal Revision No. 62 / 90 was the Branch Manager, Sales at Gauhati, the petitioner in Criminal Revision No. 63190 was Stock-yard Superintendent and both the petitioners in Criminal Revisions Nos. 64 and 65 of 1990 were Senior Assistant (Cash Branch) and Senior Assistant (Sales) of the Gauhati Branch of the Steel Authority of India, which is a Govt. of India undertaking being a Government Company within the meaning of Companies Act. The alleged offence relates to the year 1978-79. On receipt of the reliable information regarding unauthorised and illegal disposal of iron and steel materials allotted to the Govt. of Nagaland by the Steel Authority of India for distribution amongst public in the said State and defrauding the said Steel Authority of India for a considerable amount, the Central Bureau of Investigation suo motu filed the F.I.R. and registered a case in the year 1980. The case was registered under Ss. 420/468 and 471, I.P.C. and under S. 5(2)15(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and the investigation was also taken up. Ultimately, charge-sheet was filed before the Court on 11-3-85 against 26 persons including the present petitioners and out of the above 26 persons, two persons, namely, Tarachand Gupta and Ram Kr. Gool, Manager and Asstt. Manager of M/s. Dooars Transport (P.) Ltd. were granted pardon. It may be stated that though initially the case was registered under Sections stated above, in the charge-sheet, which has been annexed with the petitions, it was mentioned that a case under S. 120B read with Ss. 420, 468, 477A, I.P.C. and Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act read with Cl. (7) of Iron and Steel (Control) Order, 1956 was made out against all the accused persons.

(3.) According to the prosecution the Steel Authority of India made a scheme under which the said Authority would arrange for transportation of steel materials to different parts of the northern sector free of charge and transportation charges would be borne by the said Authority and to implement the scheme, tenders were called for and two transport Contractors, including M/s. Dooars Transport (P.) Ltd. were given the contract for transportation of steel materials from Gauhati office of the said Authority to other States. The Government of Nagaland appointed its own handling Agent to lift the steel materials for transportation to Dimapur by the above approved contractor, M/ s. Dooars Transport (P.) Ltd. Payments were made by Demand Draft by the Govt. and on receipt of the price for the steel materials, the Steel Authority issued delivery orders for lifting of materials from its stockyard at Gauhati and the nominees of the Government of Nagaland issued certificates showing receipt of the steel materials at Dimapur, Nagaland on the consignment notes/delivery challans. According to the prosecution the transporters in collusion and in conspiracy with others including the nominees of the Govt. of Nagaland and traders entered into conspiracy and steel materials which were meant for Nagaland and lifted by authorised Agent from the Stockyard, Gauhati were not transported to Dimapur, but sold at Gauhati. From the charge-sheet it reveals that procedure for passing the bills for transportation charges to the transport contractors was that the materials would be transported by the transport contractors and the particular transporter would lift the materials from the stockyard for onward transportation to Dimapur and the consignment notes which would accompany the steel materials and the trucks would be signed by the nominees/allottees of the Govt. after receiving the materials at Dimapur. The trucks would also produce weighment slips showing both the weight of the steel materials so transported as well as the truck which actually transported the said materials, On the basis of these documents, the transport contractors used to raise bills for payment by the Steel Authority of India and the bills were verified and checked during the above period by the accused petitioner of Criminal Revision No. 63 of 1990 in his capacity as Stockyard Superintendent and subsequently the accused petitioner in Criminal Revision No. 62 of 1990, who was the Branch manager (Sales) used to sign those bills as required. According to the prosecution, other two accused persons in other two criminal revisions also participated in passing of the bills of transporters which were not genuine and these bills contained untrue and incorrect facts as according to prosecution the steel materials were sold at Gauhati instead of sending these to Dimapur. It has also been mentioned that two main accused persons namely, Tarachand and R.K. Gool, Manager and Asstt. Manager of M/s. Dooars Transport (P) Ltd. were made approver under Section 306, Cr.P.C. However, R. K. Goel died after his statement under S. 161, Cr. P. C. was recorded. According to prosecution due to wrongful acts of the present petitioners in conspiracy with the transporters, nominees of the State Government and other traders, the Steel Authority of India was cheated to the extent of Rs. 83,000.00 and odd. It may be stated that there was no complaint by the Govt. of Nagaland that the steel materials in question were not delivered at Dimapur. On the top of this, there is also no complaint from the Steel Authority of India that the authority was cheated by the above acts of the present petitioners to the extent of the amount as alleged by the prosecution.