The acquittal in a criminal conspiracy case was overturned due to inadequate evaluation of the evidence, establishing that the defendant actively participated in a systematic bank fraud.

JUDGMENT :

(K.K. RAMAKRISHNAN, J.)

The CBI has filed this appeal, challenging the acquittal judgment passed in favour of the respondent herein who had been arrayed as accused No.5 in the parent case namely C.C.No.5 of 1998 on the file of the II Additional District Court for CBI Cases, Madurai. Since he had been absconding during the pendency of the trial in the parent case C.C.No.5 of 1998 the case was split up and new C.C.No.9 of 2010 was assigned and trial was conducted after securing him and the learned trial judge acquitted him from all the charges framed against him by the impugned judgment dated 29.01.2019. Aggrieved over the same, the CBI has filed this appeal.

2.Prosecution Case:

CBI registered three cases in R.C.No.5,6 & 8/S/94/CBI/SCB/MAS, and conducted investigation and filed the final report against the respondent, Girish Kumar Shiv shankar Jani (died), Armaram Gopal Satam, N.R.Raveendran,, M.Balasubramanian, Nana Mahadev Jadav, Prakash Ramachandra Payer, Salim Siraj Gillani, V.Ramaswamy, A.R.Muthukrishnan and Asmat Kamal Choudhry @ Hashmat Khan for the offences punishable under Sections120-B r/w 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 381 r/w 511 of IPC and r/w Section 13 (2) r/w13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. In the said final report, the accused G.Thangaswamy, A.Sathyaseelan, Atma Ram Gopal Satam, Prahalad Shiv Kumar Tiwari were treated as approvers and their tender of pardon was accepted as per law. The sons of the approver A.Sathyaseelan were cited as witness in the final report as L.W.45, L.W.46, L.W.47 and L.W.48. The son of approver G.Thangaswamy was listed as witness in the final report as L.W.51.During the investigation, the respondent absconded and hence, proclamation was issued and final report was filed by showing the respondent as absconding accused. The said final report was taken on file in C.C.No.5 of 1998 on the file of the learned II Additional District Judge for CBI Cases, Madurai and the array of the accused is as follows:

A1.Raveendran,

A2.Balasubramanian,

A3. Nana Mahadev Jadav

A4. Prakash RAmachandra Payer

A5.Abdul Aziz

A6.Salim Siraj Gilani

A7.Ramasamy

A8.Muthukrishnan,

A9. Asmat Kamal Choudhry @ Hashmat Khan

2.2.The respondent absconded and he was declared as proclaimed offender and hence, the case was split up in C.C.No.2 of 1999. Thereafter, trial was commenced against the remaining accused and the evidence was recorded. After recording of evidence, Salim Siraj Gilani absconded and hence, the case was split up in C.C.No.12 of 2002 against the said Salim Siraj Gilani. During the further course of trial, A9/Asmat Kamal Choudhry @ Hashmat Khan also was absconded and hence, he also was declared as proclaimed offender. The trial was continued in C.C.No.5 of 1998 against the remaining accused, namely, A1, A2, A3, A4, A7 and A8 and all were convicted by judgment dated 27.12.2002. They also filed appeal before this Court in Crl.A.Nos.34 of 2003, 315 of 2003, 384 of 2003 and the same also was dismissed. That being the situation, the respondent was arrested and confined in prison and trial was conducted in split up C.C.No.9 of 2010.

2.3.The respondent, other accused were also found to be indulged in similar fraud and hence, two other final reports were filed against the respondent and other accused and the particulars of the two other cases are as follows: