Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

A stage was reached when the Directorate of Accounts objected to the payment of the bills and asked for muster rolls of labourers employed for execution of the work. A-1 then had prepared register exhibit P-37 and muster roll exhibit P-36 on the basis of entries in a copy book (exhibit P-47) which had been supplied to A-1 by A-2. The entries in the muster roll having been found to be suspicious, the case was entrusted to the Central Bureau of Investigation who found that, as against a total amount of Rs. 4,73,537.50 paid by the Government to A-1 and by him to A-2, the work done was worth no more than Rs. 76,247.43. It was this conclusion which led to the prosecution of the appellants.

3. Now we shall give a resume of the defence stand taken by A-1. He held numerous offices in addition to that of the Captain of Ports and as such he had to perform multifarious duties while the staff placed at his disposal was grossly inadequate by any standards so much so that he did not even have an Accounts Officer. As the work of deepening and widening the Kumbarjua canal needed urgent attention, tenders for its execution were called and A-2 was found to be the only tenderer. A-1 was assured by the Secretary, I.L.D., that the necessary order approving the tender would soon be forthcoming and that the execution of the work should be taken in hand immediately in anticipation of orders. The Assistant Marine Surveyor, Shri D'Souza (PW.4) was instructed to personally supervise the work which was started on the 15th of March, 1966. By the end of April, 1966, A-1 was told that the work should be executed departmentally by engaging labour and not through A-2. However that was not possible under the circumstances and the work proceeded as before. Shri D'Souza (PW. 4) used to check the volume and the kind of material excavated daily and to make entries in his notebook accordingly. When objection was taken by the Directorate of Accounts at the end of the financial year to the passing of the bills on the ground that muster rolls were not being maintained, A-1 made enquiries from Shri D'Souza (PW 4) and learnt that A-2 had maintained a gang-wise muster roll on the basis of which documents were prepared by Shri D'Souza (PW 4) under the orders of A-1 and were submitted to the I.L.D. The work was executed in conformity with the bills submitted by A-1 to the Government. In any case, A-1 acted in good faith and if any of the bills did not conform to facts the reason must be that he had been cheated by A-2.

(c) The work was being carried out by A-2 with his own labour and no labour on muster roll was employed by A-1.

(d) A-2 prepared statements of work or summaries which he submitted to A-1 who would then sign typed copies thereof and forward the same for sanction to the I.L.D. On receipt of such sanction A-1 would prepare contingent bills and sign each of them along with a certificate that the work was being carried out departmentally in accordance with Rule 141 of the G.F.R. as per the attached summary. Each bill would then be submitted along with the summary to the Accounts Department which issued the corresponding cheque to A-1. The amount of the cheque was then realised by A-1 and paid over to A-2 under a receipt.

7. From the above findings the learned Special Judge concluded that the two accused had entered into a conspiracy to cheat the Government in the matter of the execution of the work by presenting inflated bills and receiving against them far greater amounts than had actually been spent, that muster rolls ultimately produced to support the bills contained false averments and were forged documents, and that A-1 was fully aware that the certificate regarding the work being carried out departmentally in accordance with Rule 141 of the G.F.R. and appended to each of the bills was false. It was also proved to his satisfaction that muster roll exhibit P-36 and register exhibit P-37 were dishonestly or fraudulently prepared by A-1 to support false bills and that this was done with the assistance of A-2. The amount really spent on the work done having been found by the learned Special Judge to be only Rs. 32,287.75, he held that the Government had been cheated into an excess payment of Rs. 4,41,249.75.