HIT NARAIN MAHTON Vs. BED NARAIN MISTRY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This rule has been issued on the application of one Hit Narain Mahton, who was convicted under Section 406, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three months and to pay a fine of Rs. 200, with rigorous imprisonment for one month more in default, and whose appeal has been dismissed by the learned Sessions Judge of Gaya.

(2.) The facts that have been found by the Courts below are that on 11th November 1941, the complainant executed a handnote in favour of the petitioner for Rs. 106-4-0. The same day the complainant also pawned with the petitioner silver ornaments for Rs. 18. The petitioner evaded settlement of the account and return of the handnote and the ornaments, so the complainant took punches to his place. The panchas settled the total dues at Rs. 155. The complainant paid this amount in the presence of the panchas. On the pretext of bringing the document from inside the house, the petitioner went inside and would not come out. Subsequently on enquiry from the inmates of the house it was learnt that he had gone out the backway and gone off.

(3.) The defence was a refusal to admit that the money had been paid, and, in the alter, native, that if it had been received, no criminal offence had been committed.