M.A.A.KHAN, J. - (1.) BY their three separate but almost commonly worded judgments and orders of even dates the two court below have found the petitioner guilty of the offence Under Section 409 IPC, convicted him as such and sentenced him to undergo six months R.I. and pay a fine of Rs. 500/ - in each of the three cases. Parties, nature of offence alleged to have been committed by the petitioner and questions of facts and law involved being common to all the three petitions these were heard together and are now being decided by this common order. The main order shall be placed on the record of Criminal Revision Petition No. 41 of 1993 Modi Singh v. State and a copy thereof on each of the remaining case files.
(2.) FACTS , relevant and common to all the three petitions are these: During the years 1973 -76 the. petitioner had been working as a 'patwari' in the Revenue Deptt. of the State Govt. from July 12, 1973 to June 7, 1976 he remained posted as Patwari in Patwari Circle No. 26 Sikroda Meena. His duties included recovery of land revenue and other Govt. dues from the agriculturists and on demand to issue copies of certain documents to them against cash payments. To carry out his official duties he was issued certain receipt books containing receipts in triplicate. The original receipt was to be delivered to the person paying the dues, the duplicate receipt was to accompany the challan through which the Govt. money was to be deposited in the treasury at Tehsil H.Q. and the triplicate was to remain in the receipt book which was to be kept by the petitioner. The amounts received and deposited were to be entered into a cash book (Sihaya) to be maintained and kept by the petitioner. During the relevant period the petitioner is alleged to have been issued, inter alia, Cash Book, Receipt Books bearing Nos. 80309 and 20773, besides other relevant papers and documents. He worked in that Circle upto 7.6.76 under his immediate Superior Officer Sh. Mohd. Rafi Girdawar. The record handed over by the petitioner at the time of his transfer from that place and post appears to have been kept in a box and was received in his charge by his successor -in -office, Sh. Babu Lal Verma Patwari, on 7.8.76. On examination of the Receipt Books and the Cash Book Sh. Babu Lal Verma Patwari is stated to have noted that in the two receipt books there were several receipts whose originals had though been issued to the concerned persons yet their duplicates were still there in the receipt books. On examining the entries in the Cash Book he noted that corresponding entries relating to several receipts were not made in it. The discrepancy was brought to the notice of the higher authorities and Sh. Brij Bhushan Lal Sharma, a Revenue Inspector, was directed to conduct audit of the accounts as maintained by the petitioner. On audit of the accounts the petitioner was found to have received a sum of Rs. 2871.22 in different amounts from the cultivators but neither to have passed relevant entries in the cash book and nor to have deposited the same with the Govt. treasury. On the basis of such audit and on the receipt of the requisite sanction from the proper authority Sh. Vijay Kumar Sharma Tehsildar sent a written report to the Station House Officer Hindon for registering a case against the petitioner and conducting investigation according to law. A case for offence Under Section 409 IPC was accordingly registered against the petitioner vide FIR No. 30/1978. Dwarka Prasad Head Constable, Buniyad Ali A.S.I and Kedar Nath S.I. conducted the necessary investigation and collected evidence relating to the commission of the offence Under Section 409 IPC by the petitioner. Since the commission of such offence spread over three years, three separate charge -sheets were submitted before the trial Magistrate giving rise to the institution of Criminal Cases Nos. 26/79 (345/89), 27/79 (344/89), 29/79 (343/89) in his court. The learned trial Magistrate framed necessary charges in all the three cases and by his three separate judgments and orders of the even date being 11.10.91 held him guilty of the offence Under Section 409 IPC, convicted him as such and sentenced him in the manner stated above. The petitioner preferred appeals bearing Nos. 29/91 (116/92), 30/91 (117/92), 28/91 (115/92) respectively to the learned Addl. Sessions Judge Hindon City who, vide his judgments and orders of the even date being 3.2.93, dismissed all the three appeals of the petitioner and confirmed the orders of his conviction and sentence for the offence Under Section 409 IPC. Hence these three petitions Under Section 397 read with Section 401 Cr.P.C.
(3.) I heard the learned Counsel for the parties at sufficient length and carefully examined the records of the two courts below.;