( 1 ) IN these petitions, the point that arises for consideration is whether the payment made towards Chit funds constitute entrustment which is one of the ingredients for the offence under Section 406 I. P. C accused 1 to 5 of whom A4 is since dead, were partners of srijagagturu brikrishna Prabhu Commercial Corporation, Bandarulanka, running Chit fund transactions of various denominations of Rs. 10000/-, 5000/- and 2500/- etc. Al was the managing partner, while a6 was a Bill Collector. The procedure followed was that in each of these denominations those who were willing to contribute had to pay a certain sum each week and every two weeks there would be an auction and the lowest bidder would get the amount and out of the profit 5% would be taken out as commission and the rest of it would be divided and distributed among the members as dividends and the person who is the lowest bidder would also continue to make the payments due and also execute a pronote for the amount taken by him The complainant who is a doctor, at the instance of A5 who was a native doctor and who was sometimes bringing patients to him, started contributing to three such chits, one for Rs. 1000