RAJEEV RANJAN CHOUDHURY Vs. THE STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is apprehending his arrest in connection with Complaint Case No. 4000 of 2014 for the offence under section 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The prosecution case, in short, is that complainant Manoj Kumar Paul is a proprietor of a firm namely, Pal Enterprises, and the petitioner was his close friend and he sought help from him for business as he neither had a firm nor any commercial tax registration. After much persuasion, the complainant agreed on 13.05.2009 for which they entered into a verbal agreement to do business with the profit and loss ratio of 50 per cent and a current account was opened in Canara Bank. Thereafter the complainant and the accused procured material and supplied to customers and the money received was remitted into the current account of Pal Enterprises of which the complainant was the sole signing authority, who in turn used to give sign blank cheques to the petitioner. The bank statements used to be delivered to him only and was informed that they were suppliers of raw materials. The complainant was unaware of nature of payments. The petitioner used to say that there was sluggish demand and due to that reason the business was running in loss which version was accepted by the complainant. In May, 2011 the petitioner suddenly stated that he could not work any longer as his health would not permit and therefore, he decided to sit and settle the accounts, whereupon it was noticed that a sum of only Rs. 6963.00 was in the firm's current account and despite the laps of six months, the accounts could not be reconciled and settled. After waiting for more than a year, when the complainant requested the Bank Settlement from 01.01.2009 to 18.10,2014 and checked the transaction, he found that the blank cheques signed by him were being used to pay firms which were the vendors of the raw materials but were actually withdrawn by the petitioner in his name and converted into his account in the names of M/s Deploy Enterprises, India Motors and one Priti Singh. The petitioner fraudulently misappropriated from the proprietorship Account of Pal Enterprises Rs. 1,60,93,000.00 only. It is further alleged that it was found that Deploy Enterprises was a proprietorship owned by petitioner and the date of Registration was 05.08.2009 and was carrying in wholesale and retail trade in ferrous and non ferrous metals and hardware and tools. It is further alleged that petitioner has misappropriated a sum of Rs. Two crores forty eight lakhs and eighty two thousand in the name of accused no. 2.

(3.) It appears that vide order dated 27.06.2016, the matter was referred to Secretary, D.L.S.A, Jamshedpur for mediation but as per mediation report, mediation has failed, thereafter the case was to be heard on merit.