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28. N.K. Banerjee and Harihar Prasad must have known that the responsibility for allotting additional funds for the speedy implementation of the Project was that of the State Government, and it was not proper for them to proceed to incur the expenditure under the cover of speedy implementation of the Project. The excess expenditure under the various heads could not be justified as bona fide action on the part of N.K. Banerjee or Harihar Prasad.

29. Another feature of this case is that not a single contract was entered into after reference to the Deputy Commissioner. In fact the only order of the Deputy Commissioner S.K. Sinha is dated March 11. 1957. upon a note in connection with the expenditure for Rs. 39,000/-. After this the matter was not placed before the Deputy Commissioner ever. From his tour diary it appears that he left Daltonganj at 2 P. M. on March 11. 1957 and returned to Daltongani at 7 p. m. in the evening. He went on tour again on March 12. 1957 at 10 a. m. and proceeded on inspection from where he returned to Daltongani at 3 p. m. but after a halt of about 4i hours he left for Latehar where he stayed until the morning of March 14. 1957 and returned to Daltongani at 8-30 a. m. In the meantime N.K. Banerjee placed orders with Kohili for supply of bullocks and gave him an advance of Rs. 23.400/-. P. W. 52 the Deputy Commissioner was absent in respect of all subsequent contracts. The records show that in most cases the transactions were entered into by Harihar Prasad with the approval of N.K. Banerjee on occasions when the Deputy Commissioner happened to be away from the headquarters. The tour diary shows that Sri. S.K. Sinha the Deputy Commissioner proceeded on casual leave in the evening of April 17. 1957 and returned some time on April 23. 1957. In the meantime two large transactions had been entered into by Harihar Prasad with the approval of N.K. Banerjee - one for placing a contract with Sahani. Kohili and Jwala Prasad for bullocks etc. for 250 families. In that connection total amount of Rs. 90,950/-was paid. The contracts in respect of construction of colonies were also entered during the leave of absence of P. W. 52. In that connection Rupees 2,38.200/-were advanced to the contractOrs. The tour diary shows that the Deputy Commissioner left for Daltongani on tour in the forenoon of July 27. 1957 and came back in the forenoon of July 29. 1957. During this short interval two more large transactions were entered into by Harihar Prasad with the approval of N.K. Banerjee. One for drains and pavements and the other for construction of causeways and culverts. It was also during this period that a further sum of Rs. 31.000/-odd was paid to these two contractors on account of final payments. The record shows that S.K. Sinha was on regular leave from August 10. 1957 to August 24. 1957. During this period a further sum of Rs. 24,333/-was paid to Jwala Prasad. These payments are significant. They show that it could not have been a mere accident that all these transactions were entered into when the Deputy Commissioner was away from the headquarters. It therefore stands to reason to hold that the transactions had been entered into behind the back of the Deputy Commissioner by arranging things in such a fashion that each time Harihar Prasad was able to secure the approval of Banerjee to his actions. It could not have been due to mere chance but in pursuance of the conscious design to keep the Deputy Commissioner in dark.