Som Dutt v. State Of Punjab .

This order shall dispose of two revision petitions i.e. CRR judgment/ order dated 24.04.2017 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur. These two revision petitions have been filed challenging the judgment/ order dated 24.04.2017 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur whereby upholding the order dated 06.08.2014 passed by Sub Divisional Magistrate, Batala, the conviction of the petitioners under Sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 379 IPC and the sentence awarded to them have been upheld. The brief facts, as mentioned in the judgment of the Court below, are that one Subhash Chander, Manager of Batala Branch, Central Co-operative Bank, Batala made a complaint to the Police that on 03.10.2003, one of the petitioners, namely, Daljit singh, who was posted as peon at Shri Hargobindpur Branch approached his Bank and produced one draft No.05985 dated 01.10.2003 for Rs.90,000/- in the name of his brother- in-law Narinder Singh. The same was encashed by him. Similarly, on 02.10.2003, he again approached the same Branch with draft No.05999 dated 18.10.2003 which was in the name of his relative Arjun Singh. On this draft, Arjun Singh received Rs.3 lakhs. At that time, Daljit Singh and Som Dutt; both were also present. It was further alleged that on 04.11.2003, Daljit Singh again tried to get other draft encashed for an amount of Rs.1 lakh. However, on inquiry, it was found that the Hargobindpur Branch has never issued draft and further it was found that the draft book containing the leaflets of the draft from Sr.No.05976 to 06000 had been stolen from that Branch. Accordingly, it was alleged that Daljit Singh, Som Dutt and Narender Singh, the present petitioners alongwith Arjun Singh had cheated the Bank and committed a fraud upon it by getting the money encashed/ transferred through the drafts fabricated on leaflets from the stolen draft book. On the basis of these allegations, the present FIR was lodged. After investigation, the police filed challan against the present petitioners and one Arjun Singh. To prove their case, the prosecution had examined PW-1 HC Narinder Singh, PW-2 HC Bodh Raj, PW-3 Ashok Kumar, PW-4 Dhiraj Kumar, PW-5 Harbans Kaur, PW-6 ASI Kuljit Singh, PW-7 Jaswinder Singh, PW-8 Kashmir Singh, PW-9 Jai Dev, PW-10 Sukhjeet Singh, PW-11 Harjinder Singh, PW-12 Subash Chander and PW-