1. The appeal is against the judgement of the trial Court in C.C.No.22 of 1998 convicting and sentencing the appellant herein to undergo one year RI and pay fine of Rs.1,000/- each in default in payment of fine, 3 months R.I for offences under Section 120-B r/w 420 IPC, 477-A IPC and 201 IPC and u/s 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 420 IPC and for substantive offences under Sections 201 IPC, 477-A IPC and Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, 1 year RI and fine of Rs.1,000/- each and in default of payment, 3 months RI. The total fine imposed is Rs 5000/-. The period of sentence was ordered to run concurrently.

2. The case of the prosecution in brief:

Based on reliable information, First Information Report was registered by CBI on 31.12.1991 against (i) Shri.S.Vasudevan, Manager, (ii) Shri.Rakesh Lal, Assitant Manager, (iii) Shri.S.Santhanam, Special Assistant and (iv) Shri.S.Rajagopalan, Clerk cum Typist working in Indian Overseas Bank(in short IOB ), East Mada Street, Mylapore Branch entered into conspiracy to cheat the bank and in pursuance to the said conspiracy, they opened numerous accounts in their names and that of their relatives name in the IOB, East Mada Street branch and also in the banks at neighbourhood namely Vijaya Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad, City Union Bank. Presented cheques of those banks into the accounts maintained by them and their know persons in IOB, East Mada Street knowing fully well that the cheques is presented without sufficient fund in the respective account. After presentation of the cheques without funds in the account, they were credited into and the same withdrawn immediately. After the cheques were bounces for want of fund, the said amount were not debited back in the respective account. To avoid detection of the illegal act, the accounts were fabricated and falsified also records were destroyed or removed from the custody of the bank.

3. The investigation ended up in filing 4 separate final reports and the persons found to have involved in the crime. The trial Court has taken cognizance of the report in C.C.Nos.22,23,24 and 25 of 1998. This appeal is filed by the first accused/S.Rajagopalan in C.C.No.22 of 1998 wherein the appellant and 6 others were arrayed as accused. Pending trial, second accused Smt. Rajeswari died. For the other accused except A-1, no appeal was filed.

4. The gist of the charges framed by the trial Court based on the final report is that, A1/S.Rajagopalan while working as Clerk as IOB, East Mada Street, Mylapore, Chennai-4, entered into criminal conspiracy with A2/Rajeswari, W/o T.V. Balakrishnan, Proprietor of M/s Jeybavani Enterprises having current Account No. 3202 with IOB, East Mada Street, A3/Ramanathan, S/o V.Subramaniam, Private Individual having SB Account No. 750 with IOB, East Mada Street, ERS account No.470 jointly with Smt.Chitra with Vijaya Bank, Mylapore, and SB Account No. 1014 jointly with his father Shri.V.Subramaniam in IOB, East Mada Street. A-4/Jayaraman had SB Account No.1122 with SBH, Mylapore, jointly with Smt. Rajeswari, A5/Smt.V.Lalitha, W/o Shri Vetham had SB account No.154/13112 with SBI, Royapetta, A-6/Shri.S.Shankar, S/o Subramani had SB account No.7392 with UCO Bank, Mylapore and A-7/Shri.Venkatasubramaniam had SB account No. 1000 with Andhra Bank, Mohriees Road, during the period from 1989 to 1991, at Chennai and in furtherance of that criminal conspiracy, Shri. Rajagopalan/A1 fraudulently and dishonestly obtained blank signed cheques from A2 to A7 and credited the amounts into his account No.1000 and his family members accounts namely, SB account No. 2518 in the name of Smt. C.K. Lakshmi, SB account No.361 in the name of Smt.S.Kalyani and subsequently withdrawn the credited amounts from those accounts by A-1. At the time of issuing cheques by A2 to A7, it was well within their knowledge that there was no sufficient funds in their accounts and further A1/Rajagopalan d