THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE GOPALA KRISHNA TAMADA CRIMINAL REVISION CASE No.1038 of 2003 ORDER: 1 The petitioner herein who was the Sarpanch of Kuntloor Gram Panchayat was tried as accused in C.C.No.973 of 1997 for the offence punishable under section 409 of IPC on the basis of a charge sheet filed by the Extension Officer, Hayathnagar R.R.District. The learned Additional Judicial Magistrate of I Class, Hyderabad East & North, R.R. District having assessed the entire evidence both oral and documentary, found the petitioner guilty of the said offence punishable under section 409 of IPC and accordingly sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year and also to pay a fine of Rs.3,000/-. As against the said judgment dated 21.08.2002 the petitioner preferred Criminal Appeal No.153 of 2002 and the learned V Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, R.R.District at L.B Nagar by his judgment dated 15.07.2003 while concurring with the said finding given by the learned Magistrate and maintaining the fine amount of Rs.3,000/-, however, reduced the said sentence of one year rigorous imprisonment to that of six months. Questioning the same the accused before the trial court preferred this revision. 2 Brief facts that led to the filing of the present revision are that the petitioner worked as Sarpanch from 1988-1989 to 1992-1993 during which period he granted permissions for construction of houses without sanctioned layouts and committed various irregularities including misappropriation of Gram Panchayat funds, in all, amounting to Rs.29,191/-. On an audit being conducted, the petitioner was asked to submit his explanation about the alleged irregularities, but there was no response. Thereafter the District Collector has delegated the powers to the Extension Officer, who after probing into the alleged misappropriations filed the charge sheet against the petitioner herein for the offence punishable under section 409 of IPC. 3 Heard both sides. 4 Having regard to the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner and also having gone through the judgments impugned in this revision, this court is of the view that the courts below are perfectly justified and no interference is called for. However, taking the fact that the alleged offence is of the period 1988-89 to 1992-93, and the petitioner was removed from out of the office of Sarpanch in the light of the registration of the said crime, and he was in jail for a period of more than ten days, this court takes a lenient view and reducing the said sentence of rigorous imprisonment for six months to that of the period, which the petitioner had already undergone. 5. Excepting the above modification, this revision in all other aspects is dismissed. -------------- 29.07.2010 Kvsn