STATE OF PUNJAB Vs. R K PURI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present appeal has been instituted by State of Punjab aggrieved against the judgment of acquittal. Respondent R.K. Puri was tried by the Court of Judicial Magistrate (1st Class), Jalandhar in case FIR No.120 dated 07.06.1994 registered at Police Station Sadar Jalandhar under Section 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC.

(2.) The FIR was registered on the basis of a written application Ex.PW-6/A submitted by Ashwani Kumar, President of Citizens Welfare Society. The application/complaint Ex.PW-6/A was submitted on behalf of 12 persons, who stated that they had failed in B.A. Part-I examination. Then they had taken admission in B.A. Part-I of Guru Ravidas International College (Co-education), Lambra (Recognized). The Principal of the said College accused respondent R.K. Puri is alleged to have represented that he is having many degrees (qualification) and his College was recognized by the University. Therefore, he will make all these candidates appear in Criminal Appeal No.709-SBA of 1997 2 B.A. Part-II examination instead of B.A. Part-I examination, as his College was affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University. The accused respondent has charged Rs. six thousand/ ten thousand from the various candidates. He had also issued few receipts. Later, the candidates came to know that the admission forms were sent late, as they were not in consonance with the rules of the University and the College was also not affiliated. The College had displayed a false board stating that the College is affiliated. The admission forms of the candidates were also got attested from some unauthorized person and the University had raised an objection that the person who attested the forms was not a genuine person. Some students, who belonged to Scheduled Castes, appeared in the examination and the accused had illegally obtained money from the students. Students had narrated their difficulty to respectable persons of the locality, on whose intervention the accused agreed to issue cheques of certain amount to the candidates, but the cheques were dishonoured. The grievance of the complainants was that accused had opened a fake College at his residence and is cheating the people and obtaining money and in this manner playing with the future of the children. In the application, a prayer was made that legal action be taken against the accused. The written complaint Ex.PW-6/A was submitted by Ashwani Kumar, President of Citizens Welfare Society and was signed by 12 persons namely (1) Chander Mohan (2) Ashwani Kumar (3) Charan Kanwal Singh (4) Manjeet Singh (5) Jaspal Singh (6) Sanjeev Kumar (7) Nirmal Kumar (8) Sukhwinder Pal (9) Naresh Kumar (10) Harjeev Kumar (11) Ajmer Singh (12) Rajni Gupta. On this complaint, on 7th June, 1994 at 5.50 p.m. Harjinder Singh, SHO Police Station Lambra made an endorsement and case was registered at Police Station Sadar Jalandhar at 6.30 p.m.

(3.) The matter was investigated and report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. was submitted. On 8th April, 1995, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jalandhar framed charges against the accused respondent. The first charge framed against the accused respondent was that on 7th June, 1994 in the area of Lambra, he had cheated 12 persons, whose names have been mentioned above, by impersonating himself and thereby committed offence under Section 419 IPC. Secondly, on the same day, i.e. on 7th June, 1994, he induced the above said persons to deliver the property to other persons thereby committed offence under Section 420 IPC. Thirdly, on the same day, time and place, he had forged some documents, i.e. mark sheets of B.A. Part-I and thereby committed offence under Section 467 IPC. Fourthly, he had forged these documents for the purpose of cheating, therefore offence under Section 468 IPC is made out and lastly, since these documents were to be used as genuine one, therefore, offence under Section 471 IPC was also made out. The accused respondent pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. Prosecution examined seven witnesses. Narinder Singh Bhullar, Principal of Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur appeared as PW-1 and stated that prior to September 1993, he was posted as Acting Principal of Lyalpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar. He had seen application forms mark A/1 to A/7 and the signatures thereupon were not his. In cross examination, he admitted that application forms mark A/1 to A/7 were Photostat copies and he had not seen the original. He further stated that any student who had failed in B.A. Part-I was not eligible to appear in B.A. Part-II examination. This witness further stated that a candidate himself can also get the application form attested from any of the person authorized by the University, for purposes of verification. After the cross examination of this witness was concluded, Assistant Public Prosecutor made a request that he be allowed to re- Criminal Appeal No.709-SBA of 1997 4 examine this witness. The request was rejected by the trial Court on the ground that challan was presented on 3rd December, 1994, charge was framed on 8th April, 1995 and the original documents were never placed on record, therefore, request for re- examination of PW-1 after obtaining the originals was not entertained. The APP had made request for re- examination of PW-1 as the original documents were not available then. Sanjeev Kumar appeared as PW-2. He stated that he was studying in Guru Ravidas International College and accused was the Principal. He had appeared in B.A. Part-I examination. He failed to pass the examination. The accused represented to him that he would arrange his appearance in B.A. Part-II examination by getting him enrolled as a regular student. He further stated that accused continued to teach them throughout the year and took Rs.5000/-. But roll number was not given. The accused committed fraud and wasted one year of the witness and the College run by the accused was not recognized. In cross examination, this witness stated that he knew that the accused had done his M.Sc. It was not known to him that accused was working as Lecturer in DAV College. This witness had earlier failed in B.A. Part-I examination. He was confronted with his earlier statement Ex.DB, where it was not stated that accused had assured that he will get B.A. of the candidates completed after enrolling them as students. On material aspects, he was confronted with his previous statement Ex.DB. This witness admitted that accused used to take test every week. The witness further stated that he had no receipt of payment of Rs.5000/- made to the accused. PW-3 Ajmer Singh, PW-4 Ashwani Kumar and PW-5 Jaspal Singh stated on the same lines. ASI Dilbag Singh appeared as PW-6. He proved various aspects of the investigation.