9911796707
TMI Blog2018 (10) TMI 310X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d he pass it to the cashier. It is alleged that neither the appellant filled the payin- slips nor was any deposit made in the scroll, daily case receipt book and the cash payment book maintained by the cashier and he used to pocket that money. When the depositors approached him for withdrawals of money, he would make fake credit entries in the ledger accounts and fill in the withdrawal slips and submit the same to the officer concerned for payment. The Passing Officer misled by the fake credit entry would allow the withdrawals. This way, the appellant caused wrongful loss to the bank to the tune of Rs. 38,500/- during the year 1994. When the fraud came to light, a Committee of two officers namely, R.C. Chhabra (PW-3) and M.P. Sethi was deputed to hold a preliminary enquiry and the Committee noticed bungling of accounts by the appellant. After that, Enquiry Committee recommended thorough investigation in the matter. After the preliminary enquiry, FIR was registered against the appellant under Sections 409, 468, 471, 477-A IPC and under Section 13(1) (C) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act, 1988). After investigation, the appellant was charge she ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... We have carefully considered the rival contentions and perused the impugned judgment and evidence and materials placed on record. 7. In his evidence, A.K. Gupta (PW-10), the then Manager of UCO Bank, Nerwa Branch had stated that the appellant who was a Peon in the branch was performing the duties of Cash Clerk for shortage of staff. He further stated that while the appellant was so working as Cash Clerk, the appellant used to receive cash from the depositors for depositing the same in their Saving Bank accounts and used to make the entries in the Cash Book then and there and return the pass book to the customers by pocketing the cash so given to him without making any credit entry in the ledger. A.K. Gupta (PW-10) further stated that generally the pay-in-slip is filled in by the depositor himself; but in order to pocket the money, appellant-Ram Lal filled up the pay-in-slip. PW-10 further stated that subsequently, when the depositors used to visit the Bank for withdrawal of the cash from their Saving Bank accounts, appellant- Ram Lal used to make false credit entries in the ledger books and after making the debit entries in their accounts, he used to hand over the cash to the cus ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and H.O. Aggarwal, who submitted the report consisting of 202 pages, which has been made part of the investigation report, Ex.-PW-2/A. R.K. Soni (PW-2) deposed in his evidence that the writings at pages (143) and (144) of report Ex.-PW-2/A, was prepared by the appellant-accused voluntarily in his own handwriting, in his presence and in the presence of his co-investigator H.O. Aggarwal and the appellant-accused admitted having received money from various account holders, for being deposited in their Saving Bank accounts and having made entries in their pass books. In his confession statement, the appellant also admitted that he did not account for the money, but misappropriated the same and that when the account holder visited the bank for the withdrawal of the money, he used to make fake credit entries in the ledger folio of their accounts and on the basis of those fake entries, withdrawals used to be made. 11. Contention of the appellant is that the confession statement of the appellant was not voluntary and PWs 2 and 3 were persons in authority who have pressurised the appellant to make the confession and therefore, Ex.-PW-3/A and Ex.-PW-2/A cannot be said to have been made vol ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hom it has been made." The Court further expressed the view that: "19. ... Such a confession can be relied upon and conviction can be founded thereon if the evidence about the confession comes from the mouth of witnesses who appear to be unbiased, not even remotely inimical to the accused, and in respect of whom nothing is brought out which may tend to indicate that he may have a motive of attributing an untruthful statement to the accused...." 15.6. Accepting the admissibility of the extra-judicial confession, the Court in Sansar Chand v. State of Rajasthan (2010) 10 SCC 604 held that: "29. There is no absolute rule that an extra-judicial confession can never be the basis of a conviction, although ordinarily an extra-judicial confession should be corroborated by some other material. [Vide Thimma and Thimma Raju v. State of Mysore (1970) 2 SCC 105, Mulk Raj v. State of U.P. AIR 1959 SC 902, Sivakumar v. State By Inspector of Police (2006) 1 SCC 714 (SCC paras 40 and 41 : AIR paras 41 and 42), Shiva Karam Payaswami Tewari v. State of Maharashtra (2009) 11 SCC 262 and Mohd. Azad alias Shamin v. State of W.B. (2008) 15 SCC 449]" 14. It is well settled that conviction can be ba ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Soni (PW-2) and H.O. Agrawal, the then Assistant Chief Officer (Inspection). Here again, it was not suggested to R.K. Soni (PW-2) that Ex.-PW-2/A was outcome of some threat or pressure. The trial court as well as the High Court concurrently held that the confession statements (Ex.-PW-3/A and PW-2/A) were voluntarily made and that the same can form the basis for conviction. We do not find any good ground warranting interference with the said concurrent findings. 17. In so far as the conviction under Section 13(1)(c) read with Section 13(2) of PC Act, 1988, the appellant was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years. For conviction under Section 477-A IPC, the appellant was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years. For conviction under Section 409 IPC, the appellant was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years. The occurrence was of the year 1992- 94. Considering the passage of time and the facts and circumstance of the case, the sentence of imprisonment imposed on the appellant is reduced to three years. 18. In the result, the conviction of the appellant under Section 13(1)(c) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
