PRAFULLA KUMAR ROY CHOWDHURY Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals arise out of an order passed by the Third Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta convicting the appellants Prafulla Kumar Roy Chowdhury and Manik Lal Sur of an offenc under Secs.120B/403, Indian Penal Code and sentencing them each to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 500 or in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and awarding the fines, if realised, to the complainant as compensation. There was another accused person one Pramatha Nath Bose who was tried along with the appellant in respect of the same offence, but was acquitted.

(2.) The three accused persons were on the staff of the Bengali newspaper Basumati Profulla as a despatcher, Manik as an assistant accountant and Pramatha at checker of postage stamps. The prosecution case was that they conspired with each other and were members of a conspiracy with the object of committing criminal breach of trust in respect of postage stamp or the money equivalent thereof and that they did in fact commit the offence of criminal breach of trust in respect of 67,606 half-anna prostage stamps of Rs. 2,112-11 their money value. The period was confined in the charge to that between the 3 October 1924 and, 23rd March 1925, both days inclusive. It was the prosecution case that a gigantic and well- organised swindle was being perpetrated in respect of postage stamps Or their money equivalent for some considerable time, but for the sake of convenience of proof or to prevent embarrassment the charge was confined to such postage stamps as were meant to be affixed to cards which would require half-anna stamps to pass through the post as post cards. The circumstances under which the fraud was detected are fully described in the judgment of the learned Magistrate and need not be repeated here, but it is necessary to describe the procedure which obtained in the office in order, to deal with the points which arise in the present appeal.

(3.) The procedure which was in vogue may be gathered, though not without considerable difficulty, from the evidence of the proprietor P.W. No. 4 and the Manager P.W. No. 1. The difficulty arises from the divergence as to the details in the evidence of these two gentlemen due mainly to the disregard of sequence in the events that they were asked to state. The procedure appears to have been somewhat cumbrous and to state quite shortly it was as follows: Letters issued from the different departments of the office--and there are sixteen departments of the concern manned by a very large number of employees--are entered in the issue registers of the respective departments and placed before the proprietor in his room for his signature. After they are signed the despatcher takes them from the proprietor's room. The despatcher then gets an advance from the Durwan requisite to cover the postage. This advance is made by the Durwan from out of the cash which he has in his hand on account of sale proceeds of newspapers sold through hawkers. The despatcher takes this advance from the Durwan after giving him a slip noting down therein the details of this amount. Stamp purchased with the amount so received is affixed by the despatcher to the letters and he produces them before the assistant accountant. The assistant accountant is supposed to check and count the number and value of the stamps on post cards, letters and packets enter the same separately on a slip, and while retaining the slip with himself, returns the post cards, letters and packets to the despatcher. The slip is made over by the assistant accountant to a clerk for being entered in the stamp register. This clerk ordinarily writes the stamp register, but in his temporary absence other persons as well write it including the checker of stamps. The despatcher takes the post cards, letters and packets to the checker of stamps whose duty it is to count them again and keep a note of the figures representing the stamps or their value. The articles are then despatched by the despatcher through some office peon to the post office. After the stamp register is written up the checker compares the entries with the notes kept by him and examines it with reference to the slip prepared by the assistant accountant which also passes on into his hands. The checker has also to compare the entries with the issue register of the different departments, The Durwan when he makes over the cash to the cashier, produces before him a book in which he gets written up a sort of account in respect of his collections and disbursements and he also produces before him the slip which the despatcher gives him for the advance taken. The cashier receives the balance, if any, and puts down in this book the items mentioned in the slip and makes a calculation therein showing the amounts spent on different heads and also the cash he receives from the Durwan. The cashier finds the amount taken by the despatcher to tally with what the stamp register shows and it is then inferred that the postage actually issued is the postage for which advance has been received from the Durwan. It may be conceded that if this procedure was followed to the letter, there could be no fraud but for the complicity of the despatcher, the assistant accountant and the checker, and each one of them was a sine qua non in the conspiracy and possibly others may also have participated in it.