A court here has set aside a judgment acquitting a sub-postmaster working at south Delhi’s Talimabad post office in a case of alleged misappropriation of ₹2.49 lakh invested in various schemes and making false entries into the investors’ passbooks in 2006.
Quashing the acquittal judgment, Special Judge Rajesh Kumar Singh remanded the case to the trial court for a fresh decision, observing that the trial was not conducted in a proper manner. The judge passed the order on an appeal by the Superintendent of Post Offices, South Division, New Delhi, against a Metropolitan Magistrate court judgment.
A packer at the post office was also an accused in the case, but the trial was abated against him as he died mid-way.
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“Prosecution witness Jyoti Verma was one of the depositors whose amount had been embezzled. In her complaint, she made specific allegations against the sub-postmaster. She also denied her signatures on the withdrawal slips. No question regarding her deposition appears to have been put to the accused,” the judge said.
“Prosecution witness Shiv Nandan was another victim. His original passbook was on record, but it was not exhibited when he was being examined. The passbook had been returned by the FSL, Shimla, with the other original documents. If he had been examined before receipt of the opinion and the documents, he should have been recalled. The FSL report was not exhibited and has not been considered while deciding the matter,’’ the judge also said.
“In view of above discussion, the appeal is allowed. The impugned judgment dated 12.12.2017 acquitting accused/respondent Dambar Singh is set aside and the matter is remanded to trial court for fresh decision. The complainant is given liberty to move an application for recall of the required witnesses to exhibit/prove the documents already on record,” the Judge ordered.
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