SATYA NARAIN MOHATA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the appellant Satya Narain Mohata was put upon his trial jointly with one Nanda lal Banerjee at the High Court Sessions before Costello, J., and a jury. The facts out of which the case arose were alleged to be that Messrs. Bird and Company had a contract to supply labour to Messrs Kilburn and Company in connexion with the managing agency of the latter firm for the India General Steam Navigation Company Limited. It appears that there was an office at a certain ghat. It appears that Messrs. Bird and Company gave a sub-contract for the supply of this labour to the appellant. The appellant was to be paid at a flat rate based upon the number of maunds actually handled or transhipped by the coolies whom he supplied. The rate was not quite the same for all articles but it was a system of payment which depended upon the number of maunds that had been handled. The first accused, Nandalal Banerjee was a clerk or servant of Messrs. Bird and Company and the system as regards payment was alleged to have been that certain vouchers were prepared by accused 1 and that accused 1 to a large extent looked after the business of the present appellant and assisted him in various matters connected with the supply of labour and obtained payment from Messrs. Bird and Company. In these circumstances it was said that after certain records giving the weights of the different goods handled had been checked and passed on behalf of Messrs. Kilburn and Company these records were falsified and bills were presented on behalf of the present appellant to Messrs. Bird and Company for a larger sum than was justly due. To give a particular illustration which is referred to in one of the counts at the trial it is said that figure "36" maunds was changed into "4036"

(2.) In these circumstances the accused were put upon their trial jointly and the charges against them were as follows : The first charge alleged that between February and August 1926 they were parties to a criminal conspiracy to cheat Messrs. Bird and Company. The second count was against the present appellant alone and accused him of cheating Messrs. Bird and Company in respect of a certain certified report being the daily report of work done on the 7 July 1926. The third count was against Naiadalal Banerjee alone and accused him of abetting the offence of cheating described in the second county The fourth count was also against Nandalal Banerjej alone and accused him of committing forgery in respect of the same document as is mentioned in the second count, namely a certified daily report of work done on the 7 July 1926, and the fifth count was against the present appellant charging him with having dishonestly used as genuine the document referred to in the previous Court.

(3.) Now, the jury found the two accused not guilty on the first count of conspiracy but they found the present appellant guilty on the second count of the crime of cheating and they found Nandalal Banerjee guilty of abetting that. They also found Banerjee guilty of the charge of forgery and the present appellant guilty of dishonestly using as genuine the forged document.