The bank adjusted the account by debiting Matadin Bhagwandas with the amount.
3,52,000/ due on unpaid hundis interest and other charges.
To enable Murarka brothers at Calcutta to honour the hundis on presentation Lachhimi Narain and Tulsi Ram, the acquitted accused Srinivas and a munim of theirs named Hanuman Prasad, who was also an accused but died during investigation, used to get money transmitted from the firms account in the Rae Bareli, Lucknow and Kanpur branches of the Allahabad Bank to the ac companynt of Murarka Brothers at Calcutta by telegraphic transfers.
The particulars of the device adopted are these A partner or an employee of one of the firms booked small companysignments of say two or three bags of rape seed, poppy seed or mustard seed from various stations in Rae Bareli and Partapgarh districts to various stations in West Bengal, including the city of Calcutta.
C. Mathur and C. P. Lal, for the respondents.
1,82,000/ had been negotiated by the bank directly with the firm Bhairo Prasad Srinivas and hundis worth Rs.
These forged railway receipts were then endorsed by the companysignor in favour of one or other of the firms Beni Gopal Mohan Lal, Tulsi Ram Sohan Lal, Sagarmal Soorajmal or Bhairo Prasad Srinivas and thereafter these firms drew large sums of money companymensurate with the huge quantities of goods specified in the forged railway receipts and on the security of these railway receipts drew demand drafts or hundis in favour of variour banks and two firms in Kanpur as payees on a firm styled as Murarka Brothers, Calcutta, as drawee.
N. Mulla, B. B. Tawakley, J. P. Goyal, A. Banerji and K. P. Gupta, for the appellants.
These railway receipts have been exhibited in this case in order to prove the charge of forgery.
Instead, delivery was taken through companymission agents on indemnity bonds on the allegation that the railway receipts had been lost.
While the appellant Lachhimi Narain has throughout admitted that such a device was resorted to, the other appellants denied any knowledge of the aforesaid device.
Such bonds were executed either by one of the partners or by an employee and after getting them verified by the station masters and 388, goods clerks of the booking stations they were endorsed in favour of the companysignees.
The appellants, except Chandrika Singh executed a mortgage deed on January 5, 1950, in favour of the Bank of Bikaner for Rs.
The bulk of these forged railway receipts is number forth companying, presumably because, they have been destroyed after the hundis supported by them were honoured and the receipts received from the banks or the firms which were payees under the hundis.
September.
According to the prosecution, Bhairo Prasad Srinivas paid the firm Matadin Bhagwandas Rs.
Delivery of the companysignments despatched by the partners or the employees of the various family firms companyld obviously number be taken with the help of forged railway receipts because had that been done the fraud would have been immediately discovered.
1,70,000/ through Nand Kishore Sitaram.
1,92,000/ .
It is the prosecution case that the banks and the firms obtained discount charges of one or two annas per cent for the amounts paid by them, although had the family firms obtained these amounts by way of loan they would have been charged interest at 6 to 9 per cent on these amounts.
Appeals from the judgment and order dated April 15, of the Allahabad High Court in Criminal Appeals Nos.
3,52,000/ out of which hundis worth Rs.
The judgment of the Court was delivered by MUDHOLKAR, J. These are appeals by a certificate granted by the High Court of Allahabad.
23 lakhs.
This was done long before the companyspiracy and, therefore, has numberbearing on the question before us.
After the cheating practised by the family firms and forgeries companymitted by them came to light, Daya Ram, P. W. 62, a partner in the firm Matadin Bhagwandas filed a companyplaint before the City Magistrate, Kanpur on January 4, 1950, and B. N. Kaul, Manager of the Bank of Bihar, lodged a report the police station, Colonelganj, Kanpur, on January 18, 1950.
80 lakhs on the security of railway receipts in which the quantities of goods companysigned had been increased, but also admitted that he had got the quantities inflated by his munims, Raj Bahadur and Hanuman Prasad, both of whom are dead.
The banks which discounted the hundis and the drafts were the Kanpur branches of the Bank of Bikaner, the Bank of Bihar, the Bank of Baroda and the Central Bank of India and the firms were Matadin Bhagwandas and Nand Kishore Sitaram, both of Kanpur.
Towards the end of December, 1949, the Kanpur branch of the Bank of Bikaner and the Bank of Bihar received back a number of hundis unhonoured along with companyresponding forged railway receipts.
3,62,000/which included Rs.
The Bank of Bikaner received five hundis for an amount of Rs.
They arise out of the same trial.
It has been established by evidence and it is number disputed before us that these companysignees in fact took delivery of the small companysignments at the special request of Lachhimi Narain, disposed of the companysignments and credited the sale proceeds to the account of Bhairo Prasad Srinivas or Murarka Brothers at Calcutta.
All the six appellants were, in addition, companyvicted under s. 120 B, I.P.C. and sentenced separately in respect of that offence.
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Criminal Appeals Nos.
Six hundis were received back by the Bank of Bihar, Kanpur, valued at Rs.
These unpaid payees instituted inquiries from the companysignees and the railways and came to know that the railway receipts offered as security to them were forged.
It is companymon ground that the family carried on business in the names and styles of 1 firm Beni Gopal Mohan Lal with head office at Rae Bareli, 2 Tulsi Ram Sohan Lal with head office at Lalgunj in the district of Rae Bareli, 3 firm Bhairon Prasad Srinivas with head office at Rae Bareli, 4 firm Gobardhan Das Moti Lal with head office at Madhoganj in the district of Partapgarh and 5 firm Sagarmal Surajmal with head office at Unchahar in the district of Rae Bareli.
62 and 63 of 1958.
Tulsi Ram, Beni Gopal and Babu Lal were each companyvicted of offences under s. 417 read with s. 420 and Moti Lal of, offences under s. 417, I.P.C. and Lachhimi Narain of offences under s. 420, I.P.C. Separate sentences were awarded to each of them in respect of these offences.
The person companycerned used to execute for warding numberes and obtain railway receipts in respect of such companysignments.
A. 62 of 1958.
2,25,000/ were lying at the railway station and demurrage on the companysignment was mounting every day.
The banks obtained payment through their branches in Calcutta while the two firms obtained payments through certain banks.
They were also required to take delivery subsequently of cloth worth over Rs.
Prior to the appointment of this firm as sole importer a syndicate companysisting of four firms of Rae Bareli was the sole importer of cloth in that district.
Though different members of the family were shown as partners in these five firms, one thing is number disputed and that is that the business of each and every one of these firms was being companyducted by and under the orders and directions of Lachhimi Narain though in point of fact he was shown as partner along with his father Sri Niwas and brother Pahlad only in the firm of Bhairo Prasad Srinivas.
80 lakhs between May, 1949, and December, 1949.
It is number disputed either that it was at the instance of the Deputy Commissioner that the firm Bhairo Prasad Srinivas agreed to act as sole importers take delivery of the cloth and distribute it amongst wholesalers.
After this firm was established in Calcutta Lachhimi Narain opened an account in the name of the firm in the Calcutta Branch of the Allahabad Bank and authorised Babu Lal and Chandrika Singh, who was originally an employee of the firm Bhairo Prasad Srinivas and was transferred to Calcutta, to operate on the account.
These were negotiated through Matadin Bhagwandas.
1332 and 1476 of 1954.
It would, however, appear that this syndicate failed to take delivery of large companysignments of cloth with the result that the Deputy Commissioner discovered that cloth bales valued at about Rs.
It may be mentioned that this firm was established by the family in Calcutta about a year or so before the transactions in question were entered into.
These payees realised the amounts by presentation of the hundis and railway receipts to Murarka Brothers at Calcutta.
All this was admittedly done by minims under the direction of Lachhimi Narain himself.
The companysignors foil of the railway receipt was then taken to Rae Bareli and there it was tampered with by altering the number of bags, the weight of the companysignment and the freight charges.
These receipts were prepared by the railway authorities in triplicate, one being given to the companysignor, one sent to the destination station and one kept on the record of the forwarding station.
