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(2) That during the same period, you forged Patta proceedings in antedates in respect of the sale of land 30'*35' belonging earlier to the defunct Gram Panchayat Kandgaohri in favour of Shri Surajsingh and put your own signatures on the forged document purporting to be valuable security to wit, the patta in favour of Surajsingh and gave it to Shri Surajsingh and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 467, of the I.P.C. and within my cognizance.

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(5) That during the same period, you forged patta proceedings in antedates in respect of the sale of land 50'X50' belonging earlier to the defunct Gram Panchayat Khandgaonri in favour of Mukat Behari and put your signatures on the forged document purporting to be a valuable security to wit the patta in favour of Mukat Beharilal and gave it to Shri Mukat Behari and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 467 of the Indian Penal Code and within my cognizance.

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(8) That during the same period you forged patta proceedings in antedates in respect of the sale of land 30'X30' belonging earlier to the defunct Gram Panchayat Khandgaonri, in favour of Shri Moolsingh and put your own signatures on the forged document purporting to be valuable security to with the patta in favour of Shri Moolsingh and gave it to Shri Moolsingh and that you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 467 of the I.P.C. and within my cognizance.

2. Village Khand Gawadi had before October, 1958 a panchayat of which Gangaram (P.W. 3) was the Sarpanch and the appellant its Up-Sarpanch. In the months of April and May, 1958 the appellant officiated for the Sarpanch because the latter (Gangaram) was busy in connection with his daughter's marriage. By means of a gazette notification (No. 11288/F.1(a) 48L 59/A/55 dated 16-10-58) the Rajasthan Government extended the limits of the municipal council, Kota, amongst other villages, to Khand Gawadi also. The Municipal Council took over charge from the Gram Panchayat of this village on January 7, 1959. According to the prosecution version during the months of November, 1959 to January, 1960, long after the village panchayat had ceased to exist, the appellant entered into a conspiracy with the other accused persons (tried along with him in the sessions court) and Bhanwarlal son of Bapulal (who became an approver and appeared as P.W. 1 in the case) to cheat the members of the public, the Municipal Council, Kota and the Government. The modus operandi for carrying out the object of this conspiracy was to persuade such members of the public as were amenable to their persuasion to part with money for purchasing residential plots in village Khand Gawadi; and in furtherance of this conspiracy they forged sale proceedings and pattas by antedating them and forging signatures of the other Panchas on such pattas and sale proceedings. The appellant himself affixed his signatures as Sarpanch and put the seal of the village Panchayat on the forged documents. The trial, as is obvious, from the charges reproduced above, was confined to the sale proceedings and pattas in the names of Mool Singh, Mukat Beharilal and Suraj Singh. Bhanwarlal (P.W. 1), who was also stated to have been a party to this conspiracy was granted pardon and having become an approver appeared as a witness in support of the prosecution. The Sessions Judge, after considering the prosecution evidence and the evidence of the defence witnesses, produced by the appellant, upheld the prosecution case against the appellant holding that he and the approver, Bhanwarlal, had joined hands in forging the sale proceedings and pattas mentioned in the charges and also in forging thereon the signatures of the other Panchas. In fact, according to the trial court, it was the appellant who had dragged Bhanwarlal into the conspiracy and their activities were motivated by a desire to cheat the Municipal Council, Kota, the members of the public and the Government of Rajasthan by making them part with possession of their valuable land in village Khand Gawadi for nominal price. On this finding the offence of conspiracy under Section 120B was held proved against the appellant. He was also held guilty of the offence under Section 467, I.P.C. Charges under the other sections were held not proved. The appellant was accordingly sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three years and a fine of Rs. 200 under Section 120B and to rigorous imprisonment for two years and a fine of Rs. 200 under Section 467, I.P.C. In default of payment of fine the appellant was directed to undergo six months' further rigorous imprisonment in each case. Both the substantive sentences were directed to be concurrent. The other accused persons Bakshi Gajpat Singh, Madan Mohan and Badri Prasad were acquitted.

13. Bhanwar Lal, the approver, appearing as P.W. 1 has deposed that in June, 1958 he wanted to buy a plot of land for building his own house at Kota where he had been transferred from Udaipur as Train Clerk, Kota Junction. He was introduced to the appellant through one Kanhaiyalal. He gave to the appellant an application for that purpose and also paid Rs. 40/- towards the price of the land and the appellant gave him a patta for a piece of land measuring 30'*45' without showing him its exact location. Inspite of repeated requests the appellant did not show him the plot on certain pretexts for about four or five months. And then he showed him a plot measuring only 30'*35'. On objection being raised the appellant promised to give to P.W. 1 some more land elsewhere. It appears that the approver and the appellant had by then become quite intimate. The approver gave to the appellant a contract for filling up the foundation for a house and also paid him about Rs. 8 or 9 hundred for which he took no receipt. The approver also started teaching the appellant's children as a private tutor without charging anything. It was due to this intimacy that the appellant is said to have asked the approver to help him in completing the proceedings of some incomplete patta cases of the Gram Panchayat. Bhanwar Lal, approver, who ultimately agreed to do this work went to the appellant's house where he found one Mehta, Secretary of the Mandi Committee, Madan Mohan Vijay and Badri Prasad. The appellant introduced the approver to Mehta and Madan Mohan and asked them to complete the Panchayat records according to his directions. According to the approver he had prepared about 200 pattas and order sheets in about eight or ten days' time. It is unnecessary to go into the remaining evidence of the approver at this stage. Suffice it to say that from his evidence it is not at all clear as to what interest the approver had in helping the appellant in what is described as the forgery of the various documents. His evidence, therefore, seems, prima facie, to be unimpressive and hardly trustworthy. The charge under Section 467, as already observed, is confined to four pattas issued in favour of Suraj Singh, Mool Singh and Mukat Behari. Two pattas issued in favour of Suraj Singh are Exs. P5 and P6 and one patta each in favour of Mool Singh and Mukat Behari are Exs. P 9 and P respectively. Before taking up these instances and scrutinising this evidence we may point out that there is no evidence worth the name and no argument was urged before us to attempt to show that in the case of the patta in question either the consideration received was less than the market value or the amount realised had been misappropriated and not duly deposited and credited in the appropriate account. There is thus no question of unlawful gain or loss by cheating anybody. Now Section 467 provides for punishment for forging a document which purports to be a valuable security or a will etc. We are concerned with the offence of forging a valuable security. Forgery is defined in Section 463, I.P.C. according to which whoever makes a false document or part of a document with intent to cause damage or injury to the public or to any person or to support any claim or title or to cause any person to part with property or to enter into any express or implied contract or with intent to commit fraud or that fraud may be committed, commits forgery. Section 30, I.P.C., defines "valuable security" to be a document which purports to be a document whereby any legal right is created, extended, transferred, restricted, extinguished or released or whereby any person acknowledges that he lies under legal liability or has not a certain legal right. We are, therefore, concerned only with forgery of valuable security. The fact that the pattas were granted in favour of the three persons mentioned above irregularly or contrary to any rules or directions applicable to such pattas would be wholly immaterial except to the extent it supports the case of forgery against the appellant.