JAMUNA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Jamuna Prasad, the petitioner, has been convicted under Sections 52 and 53 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, The trial court sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years under Section 52 and for one year under Section 53, but in appeal, the sentences have been reduced to one year and six months respectively, to run concurrently.

(2.) These offences are alleged to have been committed by the petitioner in August, 1961. It is not in dispute that at the relevant time the petitioner was attached to the General Post Office at Patna as a Postal peon. He was employed in the third batch of Beat No. 12, which covered the Hardinge Road, the Service Road behind the Hardinge Road, Taylor Road, Polo Road, Flying Club and the Government Poultry Farm. His duties began from 12 noon and he was expected to return to the Post Office at 5-30 P.M. after delivering the letters and other postal articles entrusted to him for delivery.

(3.) The prosecution case is that between the 1st. August, 1961 and the 1lth. August, 1961, the petitioner had not delivered a number of postal articles which had been handed over to him for delivery to the addressees of his beat. This was detected on the 12th August, 1961, when a Postman Overseer, Balram Singh (P. W. 5), went to then Postmen's Tiffin Room situated in the compound of the General Post Office to search for a mug. The Postman Overseer noticed a number of undelivered letters lying below a broken rack in the inner verandah of the Tiffin Room and he made a report (Ext. 4) about it to the Supervisor Ganesh Lal (P. W. 6), who forwarded it to the Deputy Postmaster incharge of the office of the Postmaster. Thereupon several officers, including the Deputy Postmaster Jagdhari Singh (P. W. 4), visited the Tiffin Room and recovered 35 undelivered letters and packets from beneath the rack in the inner verandah of the Tiffin Room. All these Postal articles were found to relate to Beat No. 12-A 1st (Ext. 1) of the postal articles in question (Exts. I to 1/34) was prepared by Rajendra Narayan Choudhary (P. W. 1) and signed by the Deputy Postmaster (P. W. 4) and the postal articles in question were made over to the Postmaster. Thereafter a departmental inquiry was conducted by Narayan Prasad Sinha, Town Inspector of Post Offices (P. W. 8), before whom the petitioner submitted a written statement (Ext. 10) on the same day (12-6-1961). On 14-8-1961, the Town Inspector made a report (Ext. 9) to the Officer-in-charge Kotwali police station on the basis of which a first information report ;(Ext. 11) was drawn up. The police investigated into the case and submitted a chargesheet against the petitioner. Cognizance was taken, and after an inquiry under Chapter XVIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the petitioner was put on trial before the 5th Assistant Sessions Judge, Patna.