A public servant who commits criminal breach of trust in respect of property that comes under his domain in his official capacity is guilty of an offense under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code, even if the property was not specifically entrusted to him.

1. Invoking Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the petitioners have moved for quashing of a charge-sheet under Sections 406/409/420/34 of the Indian Penal Code relating to Haringhata Police Station Case No. 20 of 2005.

2. Mr. Joy Sengupta, the Learned Counsel appearing with Ms. Sreyashee Biswas raised the following points in support of the prayer for quashing;

(a) On the face of the allegations made in the First Information Report, no offence can said to have been made out.

(b) No property being claimed to have been entrusted to the petitioners there cannot be any question of criminal breach of trust by them.

(c) The petitioners not being the public servant, no offence punishable under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code can said to have been committed by them.

In support of his submissions Mr. Sengupta relied on a decision of this Hon’ble High Court in the case of Thakurchak Shilpa Vidyalaya Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors., reported in 2005 (1) CHN 474.

On the other hand, Mr. Swapan Kumar Mullick, the Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the State vehemently opposed the prayer for quashing and submitted that sufficient evidentiary materials have been collected by the police showing complicity of the petitioners in the commission of the alleged offences, as such question of quashing of the charge-sheet does not at all arise.

3. I have given my anxious and thoughtful consideration to the rival submissions of the parties. Perused the evidentiary materials containing in the Case Diary which are the foundation of the impugned charge-sheet.

4. At the very outset it may be noted that so far as the petitioner no. 1 is concerned, who happened to be the former Headmistress of Rajlakshmi Kanya Vidyapith, charge-sheet has been submitted against her under Sections 420/409/34 of the Indian Penal Code, whereas against Dilip Kumar Das and Rathindralal Dey, who are the former secretaries of the said school, charge-sheet has been submitted against them under Sections 406/420/34 of the Indian Penal Code.

5. It appears from the evidentiary materials collected by the police during investigation that the petitioner no. 1 was the former Headmistress of Rajlakshmi Kanya Vidyapith, since retired with effect from 31st of March, 2002. During her tenure in service she was regularly drawing house rent allowances although she was provided with rent free quarter. It further appears that the petitioner no. 1 in collusion with the other petitioners, who were the former Secretaries of the Managing Committee of the school collected more than Rs. 2 lakhs from the students on account of payment of part time teachers and for meeting the expenditure of extra-examination fees and misappropriated the same. During investigation many receipt books containing counter parts in the handwriting of the petitioner no. 1 and with her signatures were seized by the police, but the amounts so collected was never entered into the cash account book of the school and was misappropriated by them. The petitioner no. 1 did not also maintain any acquaintance roll of part time teachers as well as the payment Register. A few duplicate vouchers without the signature of the recipients were found in the school records. During her tenure many electrical items were purchased at a price which were more than that of the maximum retail price. Although there were huge number of fruit bearing trees within the school compound but there was no record what amount of money has been fetched against the sale of fruits. In the accounts book a sum of Rs. 12,700/-was shown to have been spent for purchasing laboratory items but no purchase was at all made. Similarly, from the Post Office Account of the school although a huge cash was withdrawn from time to time but such withdrawal of cash was never reflected in the cash book. The fund of the school according to the rules and regulations were handled jointly by the Headmistress and the Secretary of the school and the Secretary