EMPEROR Vs. BIBHUDANANDA CHAKRAVARTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This case comes before us on a reference under Section 307, Criminal Procedure Code, made by the Sessions Judge of Burdwan.

(2.) The accused Bibhudananda Chakravarty was placed on his trial on three charges under Section 477A, Indian Penal Code, the Jury was unanimous in finding him not guilty, and the learned Judge has referred the case to this Court, as he thinks it necessary to do so in the ends of justioe.

(3.) The allegations against the aooussed are as follows : He was a olerk in the Certificate Department at Burdwan, and he was in charge of the section which dealt with requisitions under the Public Demands Recovery Act made on behalf of estates under the management of the Court of Wards. In April 1917, several requisitions were filed by a Pleader on behalf of the Manager of the Karotiya Estate. Each requisition bore a Court-fee stamp, and was aooompanied by a stamped Vakalatnamas, In the latter part of 1918, irregularities were suspeoted in the office, and an enquiry was made : in the course of that enquiry it was disooversd that the requisitions and Vakalatnamas just mentioned had been tampered with. The Court-fees upon them appeared to have been taken from other papers and attached to the requisitions and the Vakalatnamas in lieu of the Court-fee stamps which they originally bore. In answer to a question put by the learned Judge the Jury replied that they believed that such tampering had taken place. In fact it is obvious that the Court fee stamps on Exhibits 6, 7, 8, two Vakalatnamas and one requisition, are not the stamps that were attached to those papers when they were filed originally. Thi3 is not denied on behalf of the defence.