1. These two criminal appeals have arisen out of the judgment of the trial court, namely the court of the First Additional Sessions Judge-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate, Coimbatore dated 28.06.1999, made in C.C.No.32/1990, convicting the appellants in both the appeals for the offences with which they stood charged before the trial court. Therefore, both the appeals were taken up for joint hearing and are now being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. T.Ramaswamy, K.Venkataswamy and M/s.Aliyar Paper Mills Private Limited, who were A1, A2 and A4 in C.C.No.32/1990 on the file of the First Additional Sessions Judge-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate, Coimbatore, are the appellants in Crl.A.No.550/1999. Bharat Rai, who figured as A3 in the above said C.C.No.32/1990 is the sole appellant in Crl.A.No.511/1999.

3. There were totally five charges framed against the accused persons. The first, third and fifth charges were framed against all the appellants (A1 to A4), whereas the second and fourth charges were framed against appellants 1 and 2 in Crl.A.No.550/1999 (A1 and A2). The details of the charge are as follows:-

a) Charge No.1:- All the appellants (A1 to A4) committed an offenc