Judgment

RAGHUBAR DAYAL, J. : This appeal, by special leave, is by the State of Gujarat against the order of the Gujarat High Court acquitting the respondent of the offence under S. 408 I. P C

2. The respondent was an employee of Nalinkant. P. W. 1, the sole proprietor of Arora Trading Company, in l959. He was in service from 1954. It was his duty to withdraw moneys from the Union Bank of India Ltd., with which Nalinkant had an account. Nalinkant used to leave his cheque book with a few blank signed cheques with the respondent when he had to go out of Ahmedabad, the place of business. The prosecution case is that the respondent took advantage of such blank cheques, filled them up and cashed them from the Bank and misappropriated the amounts so received. He made no entries about such receipts in the petty cash book maintained by the firm.

3. Nalinkant was the only witness to prove that the relevant entries in the cheques and the signatures at the back of the cheques in token of having received the amounts from the Bank were of the respondent Corroboration of his statement was sought from four documents two of which were documents said to have been handed over to Nalinkant by the respon