1. Gist of prosecution case which led to the conviction of the appellants initiated on the complaint dated 5th February, 2001 by M.E. Haque, Secretary & Vigilance Officer (PW-24) is that officials of CWC deviated from the normal procedure and issued cheques in the name of individuals which they were not supposed to and failed to do pre-audit of bills. The complaint was based on special audit which was conducted by an internal division of Controller of Accounts on the basis of a pseudonymous complaint received by the Controller of Accounts, Ministry of Water Resources alleging that fraudulent payments have been made to officials by the accounts office, DDO/CWC. One of the main irregularities was wrong drawl of pay and allowances to the tune of Rs. 23,67,951/- during July, 1999 to March, 2000.

2. The alleged fraudulent transactions can be categorized into three categories:

“(i) Transactions where cheques issued earlier in the names of individuals were cancelled and fresh consolidated cheques were issued by the pay & Accounting Officer (A-17) in the name of DDO-I (A-2) w