Criminal Revision No.830 of 2004 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA, CHANDIGARH Criminal Revision No. 830 of 2004 Date of Decision: March 06, 2009 Rajinder Singh ...........Petitioner Versus The State, Chandigarh ..........Respondent Coram: Hon'ble Mrs. Justice Sabina Present: Mr.Raman Mahajan, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr.Rajiv Sharma, Advocate for U.T. Chandigarh ** Sabina, J. Petitioner-Rajinder Singh was convicted under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code (`IPC' for short) vide judgment dated 13.7.2001 by the Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Chandigarh. Vide order of even date, petitioner was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 2 ½ years and to pay a fine of Rs.2000/- under Section 409 IPC. Aggrieved by the same, petitioner preferred an appeal and the same was dismissed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Chandigarh vide judgment dated 23.3.2004. Hence, the present revision petition. The brief facts of the case, as noticed by the Appellate Court Criminal Revision No.830 of 2004 2 in paras 2 and 3 of its judgment, are as under:- “The appellant stood trial in the Court below for the offence under Section 409 IPC. The allegations of the case of the prosecution against the appellant may be encapsulated like this. The S.H.O. Of Police Station Central Chandigarh presented the charge-sheet against the appellant for standing his trial for the offence under Section 409 IPC in the trial Court. The brief facts of the case of the prosecution are that the Joint Director of Lotteries and Joint Secretary to Govt. Haryana, Finance Deptt, Chandigarh made a written complaint to Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandigarh for registration of the case against the appellant for the offence under Section 409 IPC. The complainant stated in the complaint that appellant Rajinder Singh who was Assistant, Haryana Treasuries & Accounts, Chandigarh was taken on deputation with Haryana State Lotteries, Chandigarh and was posted on the sale of Haryana State Lotteries tickets with his camp at Head Quarters Chandigarh. That he was called as Sales Officer Punjab Camp. That the printed tickets were received by the Camp Officer from Delhi in Haryana State Lotteries Deptt. and the Sales Officer sold tickets to the agents on cash payment basis. That Camp Officer could adjust the small prize money upto Rs.1000/-. That the prize winning tickets so received from agents or public by the Camp Officer were to be adjusted against the accounts which the Camp Officer had to render to the department. He had received them from Delhi Camp. That Rajinder Singh appellant Criminal Revision No.830 of 2004 3 had been selling the tickets of Haryana State Lotteries from 01.10.84 to 10.04.1987., That while rendering the accounts and depositing sale money with the deptt., the appellant had not deposited a sum of Rs.20,47, 768-97 with the department. That the details of the outstanding amount have been detailed in Annexure I attached with the complaint. That as per the deptt. rules, no Camp Officer could sell the tickets on credits basis nor the tickets once sold were returnable to the deptt. That the Haryana State Lotteries tickets are prepaid tickets. That appellant was reminded from time to time for rendering his account to the deptt. as per letters DOL/HR/JD/86/9664 dated 11.11.86 DOL/HR/JD/87/210 dt. 5.01.87, DO letter No.522 dt.19.01.87, No.743 dt 29.01.87. No. 918 dt.05.02.87, No. 1022 dt. 10.2.87, D.L.Letter No. 1013 dt. 10.02.87. Saving Gram No1282 dt.25.2.87, DOL/HR/EA/87/3853 dt.21.4.87, DOL/HR/EA/87/4248-49 dt.07.05.87. That Rajinder Singh appellant vide letter delivered to in the Head Office on 20.3.87 promised to clear the pending amount by 31.3.97. That again vide his letter dated 1.4.87 he had agreed to clear the account by the end of April,1987. That appellant had not deposited the amount due so far of the sum of Rs.20,47,768.57. That FIR may be registered against him and action be taken accordingly. The FIR of this case was registered on the basis of this complaint at Police Station and investigation of this case was commenced thereafter. 3. The Investigation Officer took into police Criminal Revision No.830 of 2004 4 possession the relevant documents vide separate memos prepared in this regard. He moved request to the Executive Magistrate for taking specimen signatures of the appellant and took his specimen signatures which were sent to the Govt. Examiner of Question Documents for comparison with his disputed signatures. He recorded the statements of the witnesses during the course of investigation under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter to be referred as Code). He also took into police possession the various invoice of tickets despatch during the course of investigation of the case. He also took into police possession the final accounts statements and the details of the receipts during the course of investigation of the case. On completion of investigation of the case, challan was presented in the Courts below for the trial of the appellant " Vide order dated 8.4.2004, the present revision petition was admitted qua sentence only. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner had been facing agony of criminal proceedings since the year 1988. Petitioner has been dismissed from service on account of his involvement in the criminal case. His sentence qua imprisonment be reduced to already undergone by him. Learned Standing counsel for U.T. has submitted that the offence committed by the petitioner was serious in nature and hence the judgments of the Courts below are liable to be upheld. Keeping in view the submissions made by the learned Criminal Revision No.830 of 2004 5 counsel for the petitioner, it is a fit case where the sentence qua imprisonment is liable to be reduced. However, the period of imprisonment actually undergone by the petitioner is too less. Hence, this petition is disposed of by reducing the sentence qua the imprisonment of the petitioner from rigorous imprisonment for 2 ½ years to rigorous imprisonment for one year under Section 409 IPC and fine is enhanced from Rs.2000/- to Rs.10,000/-. (Sabina) Judge March 06, 2009 arya