Crl. Revn. No. 681 of 2011 (O&M) -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Crl. Revn. No. 681 of 2011 (O&M) Date of decision:- 18.05.2011 Manoj Kumar ...Petitioner Versus State of Punjab ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE RITU BAHRI Present:- Mr. G.S Bal, Advocate for the petitioner Mr. Guninder S.Brar, A.A.G, Punjab RITU BAHRI J.(Oral) The present revision petition has been filed against the impugned judgment dated 05.02.2011 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Fatehgarh Sahib upholding the judgment dated 03.09.2009, passed by JMIC, Fatehgarh Sahib convicting the petitioner to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year under Section 420 IPC and to pay a fine of Rs.1500/- and in default of payment of fine shall further undergo imprisonment for a period of one month. Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner along with co-accused Bimla Devi and Sanjiv Kumar, were sent to face trial under Section 420 IPC on the basis of complaint dated 11.07.2000 filed by Dilbagh singh before SP(D) Fatehgarh Sahib alleging that Dilbagh Singh is employed in Morinda Sugar Mill. In his Mill, one Mohinder Kumar Sood was working with the complainant who introduced the complainant to petitioner-Manoj Kumar who assured the complainant that he would send his son Sukhmail Singh to Italy as earlier he had sent some person to Italy. He also told the complainant that he had to spend Rs.2,75,000/- for sending his son to Italy. On 20.03.1999, Manoj Kumar took the passport of Sukhmail Singh and Rs. 20,000/- from the house of the complainant. Then on 20.7.1999, petitioner took Rs.1,15,000/- from the house of the complainant at village Behar which was paid to the accused in the presence of Crl. Revn. No. 681 of 2011 (O&M) -2- Kirpal Singh son of Ujjagar Singh resident of Baher. The remaining amount of Rs.1,40,000/- was taken by the petitioner from the house of the complainant after a period of two months with the promise that Manoj Kumar would send Sukhmail Singh to Italy within a few days. The complainant had taken the said amount from his paternal uncle Jang Singh. Thus, total amount of Rs.2,75,000/- was paid to the petitioner but he did not send the son of the complainant to Italy. On the repeated asking of the complainant, petitioner kept on putting of the matter on one pretext or the other and thus has cheated the complainant of sum of Rs. 2,75,000/-. After investigation of the above said FIR, investigation was conducted and statements of the witnesses were recorded. Accused was arrested and after completion of investigation, challan was presented in the Court. Statements of the accused were then recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. The petitioner has been convicted by both the Courts on the basis of evidence of Brij Bhushan, PW7 and Mohinder Singh, PW8 pertaining to the month of November, 1999 and November, 2000. So, it clearly shows that petitioner had taken Rs.2,75,000/- to send the son of the complainant to Italy However, the judgments of both the Courts below do not suffer from any legal infirmity and are hereby upheld. However, a lenient view can be taken on the quantum of sentence of the petitioner. The petitioner has been facing trial for the last 11 years and had undergone for almost 3 months 19 days till up to 11.05.2011 as per custody certificate. In view of the above, a direction is given that the petitioner be released on probation for a period of one year to the satisfaction of CJM/Duty Magistrate, Fatehgarh Sahib. It is further directed that the fine which was imposed by the Court below is increased from Rs.1500 to Rs.20000/- In view of the above, the petition stands disposed of. May 18, 2011 ( RITU BAHRI ) G.Arora JUDGE