THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL APPEAL No.391 of 2008 04-12-2014 BETWEEN:
The State of A.P., rep. by Public Prosecutor, High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh …..Appellant AND V.Satish Kumar And others.
…..Respondents/Accused THIS COURT MADE THE FOLLOWING JUDGMENT:
THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL APPEAL No.391 of 2008 JUDGMENT:
This Criminal Appeal is preferred by the State challenging the Judgment dated 30.06.2006 passed in C.C.No.63 of 2003 by the Court of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Hyderabad, whereby the learned Judge acquitted the accused for the offences under Sections 406 and 420 IPC and Section 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act, 1999.
The case of the prosecution is as follows:
That the respondents/accused run a chit fund company, by name, M/s.Om Sri Sai Namaha Chits and Finance, and thereby they collected money from P.Ws.1 to 6 and after collecting the amounts, they failed to return the same. Aggrieved over the same, a complaint was lodged by the complainant and a case was registered against the respondents/accused and after completion of the investigation, police filed charge sheet.
To prove the case of the prosecution, P.Ws.1 to 9 were examined and Exs.P.1 to P.14 were marked. No oral or documentary evidence was adduced on behalf of the accused.
On appreciation of oral and documentary evidence, the trial Court acquitted the accused on the ground that some of the receipts produced by the witnesses are not proved to be the receipts issued by the chit fund company. One of the witnesses, i.e., P.W.4 deposed that he has already filed a suit on the basis of the promissory note and collected the money. Further, the prosecution failed to prove the case in view of the admission of P.W.9, the Investigating Officer, in his cross-examination with regard to the existence of the chit fund company and its affairs. The relevant observations of the learned trial Judge, in this regard, are as follows.
P.W.9, M.N.Ghori is the Investigating Officer in this case. P.W.7 assisted P.W.9 in conducting investigation in this case. P.W.9 during his cross-examination categorically admitted that he has not collected any documentary evidence from the witnesses examined by him, that none of the witnesses has stated before him about the address of the chit fund company, at which place they have deposited the amounts and about the source of amount and mode of the deposits. He admitted that he has not seized any material or documents pertaining to the chit fund company mentioned by the witnesses. From the above evidence of P.W.9, the investigating officer, it is evident that his investigation is not complete and it is perfunctory.
Heard and perused the material available on record.
On perusing the evidence available on record and the Judgment of the Court below, this Court is of the view that the trial Court has appreciated the evidence in proper perspective and the reasoning given above while acquitting the accused is in accordance with law. The Judgment of the trial Court does not suffer from any perverse findings and the acquittal recorded by the trial Court needs no interference by this Court.
The Criminal Appeal is accordingly dismissed. Miscellaneous applications, if any pending in this appeal, shall stand dismissed.
JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO 04.12.2014 pln