STATE OF BIHAR Vs. KAILASH PRASAD SINHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the State Government from an order of acquittal of the respondents who were tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Patna on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and using forged documents.

(2.) During the material period, there were two ration shops at Mahalla Kadam Kuan in the town of Patna -- one standing an the name of respondent Kailash Prasad Singh and the other in the name of respondent Shyam Sunder Singh. Respondent Adya Prasad Was the Munshi of the 6rst named shop while respondent Ragho Prasad was the Mumshi of the latter shop. Respondent Ambika Prasad was a helper of Adya Prasad. Occasionally he worked for the other shop also. The case against the respondents was that between October 1952 and February 1954 they conspired to cheat the Ration Office at Patna by presenting forged chalans and obtaining ration authorities on the basis of those forged chalans and thereafter taking delivery of grains from the Government godowns. On this allegation, a charge under Section 120B read with Sections 420 and 471/467 of the Indian Penal Code was framed against all the respondents. Three of them, viz., Adya Prasad, Ragho Prasad and Ambika Prasad, were also specifically charged under Sections 420 and 471/467 of the Indian Penal Code. The total quantity of grains fraudulently taken delivery of during the aforesaid period was 24544 maunds valued at Rs. 4,88,163/4/6.

(3.) In order to understand the modus operandi of the fraud it is necessary to explain the entire procedure from the submission of indents by shopkeepers up to the stage of delivery of grains to them. The shopkeepers were to submit their indents for grains in printed forms with chalans at the sectional office of the rationing department to which they were attached. The system of supply of grains, on ration cards, which was prevalent during the period of control till the middle of 1952, was changed to free supply thereafter when, according to the prosecution, shopkeepers used to get supplies according to their demands. After the indents and chalans were passed by the sectional office they were returned to the parties concerned who then went to the treasury along with, the chalans, which were in duplicate, and presented them to the clerk-in-charge of Government deposits under head "85-A Capital Outlay". The treasury cleric was to put Ms initials on the chalans and endorse them with a stamp "To The Imperial Bank of India" (as it then was). In case of chalans of Rs. 500/- and above, the treasury officer himself signed them and entries were made in the "Receipt Enforcement Register". The next stage consisted of the tender of these chalans at the bank and the actual deposit of the money there by the shopkeepers. It is unnecessary to go into the details of the procedure at the bank at this stage. All that I need state is that at the end of the day one copy of the receipted chalan used to be made over to the party depositing the money. The other copy along with a copy of the bank's scroll used to be sent to the treasury on the next day. The treasury sent the chalan to the Ration Office along with the treasury schedule containing the details of the receipted chalans of that department once a month. The purpose of sending these schedules to the Ration Office was to enable that office to verify the genuineness of the chalans presented by the parties with reference to the entries in the schedule. The evidence, however, shows that the persons whose duty it was to make this verification at the Ration Office seldom cared to do so with the result that numerous chalans, which are the subject-matter of these charges, were never verified by the staff with reference to the treasury schedules,