TMI Blog1952 (12) TMI 40X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y Shri Durga Narain Singh (husband of the Sister of the minor's deceased father). Shrimati Rajendra Kumaribai used to stay with Durga Narain Singh at Bedia Bungalow whenever she used to go to Khandwa. 3. On 23-7-1946 four applications were made on behalf of the minor under Section 202, Central Provinces Land Revenue Act -- three of them being for permission to cut the forest growth in those three villages and the fourth one for permission to cultivate the forest area of village Amba. These applications were sent by the Deputy Commissioner to the Divisional Forest Officer, Khandwa, for report. Between August 6 and August 13, 1947 the Divisional Forest officer in his turn forwarded the said applications for report to the appellant who was then the Range Officer. 4. The prosecution case is that on 26-10-1947 the appellant came to Bedia for inspecting the forests at Amba which he did in the company of one Pratab Singh the brother of Shrimati Rajendra Kumaribai. On 27-10-1947 he was invited to the house of the minor at Bedia and was given tea there. While taking tea the appellant told Radhakrishna that he would see the forest of Selda after a day. He also said that the area of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t about 6 P. M. on 26-11-1947. On the same day Radhakrishna presented to Shri Kekre an application (Ex. P/6) bearing that date praying that the previous applications be considered and the necessary permission be granted early. In the evening Shri Kekre and Shri Deo went to the police station and collected Chakravarti, the Circle Inspector, and S. D. Pande, the Sub-Inspector, and on their way picked up Shri L. R. Joshi, a first Class Magistrate. The party then proceeded towards the Rest House. Durga Narain Singh was asked to send Radhakrishna with the notes to the appellant. The party waited at the Rest House for the return of Radhakrishna and when he failed to appear the party went out from the Rest House and met Radhakrishna on the way. Radhakrishna reported that there was no movement in the house of the appellant and that the inmates appeared to be asleep. The trap thus proved unsuccessful on that occasion. Thereupon the party consisting of Shri Kekre, Deo, Joshi, Durga Narain Singh and Radhakrishna went to the bungalow of Shri Kekre and there it was decided that the appellant should be invited to tea on behalf of Shrimati Rajendra Kumaribai at Bedia Bungalow in the morning ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the beginning of November 1947 he had received ₹ 200 from Radhakrishna or had pointed out that the amount was inadequate or insisted on the balance of ₹ 300 being paid to him. He admitted that on the morning of 27-11-1947 he had gone to the Bedim Bungalow for tea but he averred that in the early morning he had been informed by Radhakrishna that it was Durga Narain Singh who had invited him to tea. He denied that he had accepted any illegal gratification in the shape of three currency notes of ₹ 100 each from Radhakrishna at Bedim Bungalow. He said that Durga Narain Singh opened the talk in the course of tea and asked him whether he had seen the instructions of the Chief Conservator of Forests in accordance with which he was to make his report. He told Durga Narain Singh that the said instructions had not been received by him from the office of the Divisional Forest Officer and that as soon as they would be received he would arrange his tour programme for Bedia Range. Durga Narain Singh asked him to personally go to the Office of the Divisional Forest Officer to see the instructions and oblige them. Shrimati Rajendra Kumaribai also requested him to expedite his ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the evidence of Shrimati Rajendra Kumaribai. While agreeing that the statements said to have been made by the appellant after the notes had been recovered from him did not amount to a confession of an offence, the Magistrate took the view that they, nevertheless, indicated his guilty mind in respect of these notes. We have carefully gone through the judgment of the learned Magistrate but we do not find that he at all applied his mind to the various discrepancies, divergencies and improbabilities disclosed in the evidence to which reference will be made hereafter in greater detail. 7. The appellant filed an appeal in the Court of Sessions Judge, Nimar-Khandwa, against the order of the trial Magistrate. The learned Additional Sessions Judge had to determine two questions, namely, (1) whether there was a demand for ₹ 500 by the appellant on 27-10-1947 and a payment of ₹ 200 on 5-11-1947, and (2) whether on 27-11-1947, there was a payment of ₹ 300 and a conscious acceptance of it by the appellant as bribe. The learned Additional Sessions Judge examined the evidence closely and in detail and pointed out the glaring discrepancies between the evidence of different pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion after the appellant had been arrested on 27-11-1947. The petition, on the face of it, was a clumsy attempt to manufacture evidence and persons who could stoop so low as to manufacture an antedated document cannot possibly be relied upon as witnesses of truth. Thus one important and integral part of the prosecution case was rejected by the Additional Sessions Judge for want of sufficient and convincing proof. 8. As regards the payment of ₹ 300 on 27-11-1947 as bribe the only evidence was that of Radhakrishna and Shrimati Rajendra Kumaribai. Here again the learned Additional Sessions Judge referred to the absence of any cogent explanation in the evidence as to why it was decided to pass on the three notes in an envelope. He pointed out the clear discrepancies as to the identity of the person who was responsible for suggesting this clandestine method and as to what talk actually took place at the time the envelope was handed over to the appellant. He did not find Durga Narain Singh's explanation for his keeping away from the scene when the appellant came to tea on that date as at all convincing in view of the alleged perfect understanding between the appellant, Ra ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s quite new to this Range and had never toured in the sub-range. The cases came to him for report between August 6 to August 13, 1947. He says that in September 1947 he requested the Divisional Forest Officer to furnish him with a copy of the map of Khandwa Tahsil. On 26-10-1947 he inspected Lachora forest and Amba Forest. He requested Pratab Singh who had accompanied him on the inspection of Amba forest to send a section of teak tree marked in his presence. In fact this section was shown to the Range Assistant S. M. Qazi on 30-10-1947. In the meantime he had to go back to the headquarter in order to submit accounts to the Divisional Forest Officer. He made his report on Lachora on 3-11-1947. It appears that the report was sent back with the remark that the report should be drawn up in accordance with the instructions of the Chief Conservator of Forests. There is no evidence at all that he was ever approached by Radhakrishna or Durga Narain Singh at any time before 26-10-1947 to expedite his enquiry or that he put it off. The appellant being new to this Range and as he had to familiarise himself with it and to attend to the Government forest coupes included in this Range we do n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... riend were to hand me over a letter to be given to Shri R. S. Joshi, Pleader of Harsud, I will take it. I would not open the letter to know its contents. It is, therefore, not necessarily unbecoming of an officer to agree to carry a letter from a brother officer, particularly if requested after being entertained to tea. 12. The third point made by the High Court was that the appellant did not, in his examination by the trial court, say that the letter was to be delivered to Mandloi or that there was any suggestion that he should see the instructions of the Chief Conservator of Forests or that there was any allusion to such instructions and that reference to these matters first appeared in the written statement which was filed five months later. The High Court was clearly in error on this point. The defence was clearly put to both the relevant witnesses, namely, Radhakrishna and Durga Narain Singh on 18-9-1948 and on 12-11-1948 respectively, that is to say, months before the examination of the appellant under Section 342, Criminal P. C. Even in his examination under Section 342 the appellant did say that the envelope was handed over to him on the pretext that it was a letter ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... wer then and there is certainly a fact which goes to weaken his defence that he is putting forward. But it should be borne in mind that the prosecution was all the time making a case of guilt founded on the alleged confessional statements and not on the conduct of the appellant in not putting forward such a defence at the time the notes were found on his person. The omission to put up such a defence was never considered to be an incriminating circumstance until the matter came before the High Court. Indeed, if this failure to make a categorical statement of the nature indicated by learned counsel had been raised or even hinted at the trial one would have expected that the appellant would surely insert some explanation in his lengthy written statement. In his examination under Section 342, Criminal P. C. this circumstance was never put to the appellant and the appellant had no chance of giving any explanation whatever. Joshi and Deo were never examined by the police under Section 162 and the appellants did not get an opportunity of testing their memory by reference to the statements of those witnesses made immediately after the occurrence. In the premises, very great weight ought ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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