JUDGMENT

N.V Ramana, J.—This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 3rd December, 2004 of the Special Court (Trial of offences relating to transactions in Securities) at Bombay in Special Case No. 3 of 1995 whereby the Special Judge convicted and sentenced the appellant for the offences under Sections 409/120B, 403, 477-A/109, IPC and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

2. The prosecution story, briefly stated, is that during the year 1991, the appellant (accused No. 1) while he was working as Assistant Manager in the Securities Department of UCO Bank, Hamam Street Branch, Mumbai in connivance with a colleague of the Bank (accused No. 2) hatched a criminal conspiracy with the infamous share & stock broker of Bombay of those times, Harshad S. Mehta (accused No. 3) with the object of cheating the UCO Bank by causing wrongful loss to the Bank and effecting illegal gain to the accused No. 3 (Harshad Mehta). It is alleged that for achieving the object of conspiracy, the appellant despite being a public servant, committed criminal breach of trust and misappropriated the funds of Bank by manipulating the accounts to facilitate unlawfu