RADHA KRISHNA GUPTA Vs. JAMUNADAS FATEHPURIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner Radha Krishna Gupta alias Radha Krishna Byas was tried by the 3rd Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta along with another person for offences under Secs.381 and 411. I.P.C. The learned Magistrate acquitted him of the said offences but convicted-him under Section 54-A, Calcutta Police Act 4 (B.C.) of 1866 and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months. He has also made an order that a fixed deposit receipt and a cash certificate which were found in the possession of the petitioner be made over to the complainant. The prosecution case was that the petitioner was a writer of accounts in the complainant's firm, that the petitioner had abstracted a blank but signed cheque form from the cheque book of the firm filled it up for Bs. 9,500 and cashed it and misappropriated the money. The charges framed against the petitioner were the following:

(2.) First, a charge under Section 381,1. P.C. in respect of a blank signed cheque form No. Cx 350718, and 2nd, a charge under Section 411, I.P.C. in respect of Rs. 800 and Rs. 4,000 covered respectively by a postal certificate and a fixed deposit receipt. The learned Magistrate held as regards the first charge that all that had been proved wat that the petitioner had an opportunity to abstract the cheque-form but that there was no legal evidence on which it could be held that the did so, and that although there was a confession made by the petitioner, it could not be taken into consideration as it had not been voluntarily made. The first charge, therefore, in the opinion of the learned Magistrate failed.

(3.) As regards the second charge the-learned Magistrate was of opinion that it had not been established that the moneys covered by the postal cash certificate and the fixed deposit receipt were the proceeds of the cheque. He held therefore that the second charge was not proved. Being of opinion however, that the-purchase of a cash certificate for Bs. 800 and the deposit of Bs. 4,000 in the bank on 6 February 1928, "the eventful day" was highly suspicious the learned Magistrate proceeded. convict the petitioner under Section 54-A, Calcutta Police Act, and sentenced him and made the order of disposal in complainant's favour as above-mentioned.