PARESH NATH KOYAL Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Paresh Nath Koyal, petitioner in Rule No. 1281, Rash Behari Banerjee petitionee in Rule No. 1317, and Panchanan Banerjee, petitioner in Rule No. 1318, were placed on trial along with another person, Krishnadhan Chaterjee before Mr. Lala Jogesh Chandra, Assistant Sessions Judge, 24-Parganas and a jury of 5 persons. It was charged against them that between 20-12-1948 and 17-1-1944, at Naihati, at Alipore and at other places, they were parties to a criminal conspiracy to cheat the complainant Ram Gopal Agarwala, and that in pursuance of that conspiracy they forged documents for the purpose of cheating Ram Gopal Agarwala, and made use of the same in prosecution of their common object of cheating him. The 3 petitioners were found guilty, and were duly convicted in accordance with the verdict of the jury. They preferred an appeal to the Sessions Judge, and the appeals were dismissed. Krishnadhan Chatterjee was found not guilty by the jury and was acquitted.

(2.) The case for the prosecution may be briefly stated as follows. Ram Gopal Agarwala, the complainant, is the son. in-law of one Naray an Das Agarwala, and looks after Narayan Das" cloth shop at Naihati in the absence of his father-in-law at his native village of Eajapur in the United Provinces. Not far away from Narayan Das shop, the petitioner Panchanan Banerjee had a pucca house; some 7 or 8 years ago Panchanan proposed to sell the house to Narayan Das for Rs. 11,000 but Narayan Das was unwilling to pay the price. In the year 1943 Earn Gopal went to his native village, and when he returned in December he was informed by Fakir, one of the employees of the cloth shop, that Panchanan's house was again in the market, and that Panchanan was prepared to sell it for Rs. 13,000 with brokerage of Rs. 750 to be paid to the petitioner Rash Behari for effecting the sale of the house at that figure. Narayan Das was approached and his consent was obtained. The house was to be purchased for Rs. 13,000 and Eash Behari was to get Rs. 750 as brokerage. Both Panchanan and Eash Behari impressed on Earn Gopal and Fakir that the proposed sale must be kept a dead secret because Panchanan's sister's husband Abinash Chandra Chatterjee was also anxious to purchase the house at a less figure.

(3.) Both Panehanan and Rash Behari represented to Ram Gopal that it was desirable, in order to prevent Abinash from getting scent of the proposed sale, to have the bainapatra, and subsequently the kabala executed and registered at the Alipore registration office and they demanded that Rs. 2000 be paid over as earnest money in order that a mortgage debt due to Krishnadhan and Balaram Mukherji might be satisfied before the house was sold. Ram Gopal agreed to this, and on 20-12-1943 these two petitioners brought Ram Gopal and Fakir, accompanied by Haren Bose, an old employee of Ram Gopal's landlord, to Alipore to the Sherista of Paresh Koyal, who was known to them from before. There the draft of the Bainapatra was prepared with reference to a copy of a mortgage bond executed by Panchanan in favour ,of Krishnadhan Mukherjee and Balaram Mukherjee. Prom this draft a fair copy was prepared and was executed, and on its execution Ram Gopal paid BS. 2000 to Panchanan. Thereafter the parties went to the registration office where in the presence of the Sub- Registrar execution was admitted, and the payment of the consideration money. The Bainapatra was registered, and the registration receipt was made over to Ram Gopal to enable him to withdraw the deed from the registration office. According to the terms of the Bainapatra, the kabala was to be executed within 1 month of the execution of the bainapatra. As he had been pressed to keep the proposed sale a secret lest Abinash Chandra Chatterjee should come to hear of it, Ram Gopal made no enquiries of his own in regard to the property he was to buy, but he did urge Panchanan and Rash Behari to show him some documents of title and possession in regard to the house. In order to satisfy him, Rash Behari, while paying rent, managed in collusion with the landlord's officer to secure a dakhila in the name of Panchanan; he also was able to obtain two parchas in Panchanan's name. Ram Gopal, being a Marwari and not conversant with Bengali transactions of the nature of the bainapatra and the kabala, had asked Haren Bose to look into the matter for him along with Fakir, and to them Panchanan and Rash Behari displayed the false dakhila and parchas and thereby led them to believe that Panchanan was in possession of the house and was paying rent therefor.