The trial court must ensure the existence of a prima facie case before framing charges against an accused.

P. K. TRIPATHY, J.

( 1 ) PETITIONER is one of the accused persons in G. R. Case No. 315 of 1987 pending in the file of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Cuttack. He has filed this application under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short 'the Code') challenging the order dated 8-12-1997 of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate who passed that order framing charge against the petitioner for the offences punishable under Section 420, 468, 471 and 409/109, I. P. C.

( 2 ) THE background facts may be noted in gist. One Ramakant Modi filed a complaint registered as I. C. C. Case No. 15/87 in the Court of Subdivisional Judicial Magistrate (Sadar) Cuttack. He alleged that he booked for a Matador delivery Van worth Rs. 1,02,779. 33 paise with M/s. Bajaj Tempo Limited through M/s. Jagannath Motors Pvt. Ltd. , Cantonment Road, Cuttack by producing a Bank draft for the said amount vide the Draft No. 0077776 dated 27-9-1986. Accused No. 1 T. V. S. Mani and accused No. 2 Jackson Das of M/s. Jagannath Motors Pvt. Ltd. , assured for delivery of the vehicle within a period of two weeks provided the complainant deposited Rs. 2,500/- towards the transportation charges. According to the complainant, on deposit of Bank Draft with M/s. Jagannath Motors Pvt. Ltd. , it was handing over the draft to Bajaj Tempo Limited and was collecting the vehicle from the later who was the supplier of such vehicles. In course of such transaction booked vehicle was being handed over to the person authorised/named in the forwarding letter from M/s. Jagannath Motors though it should have been the practice to authorise the person who deposited the bank draft to receive the vehicle from Bajaj Tempo Limited. He further alleged that when he did not receive the vehicle, made verification about the affair and found that on the recommendation of the above named two accused persons, who had forwarded that draft to M/s. Bajaj Tempo Limited, accused No. 3 Sudhansu Sekhar Das was delivered with a Micro Bus whose price at that time was Rs. 1,38,037. 21 paise and therefore, the accused Nos. 1 and 2 not only committed criminal breach of trust with respect to the money deposited by the complainant but also they along with the above accused No. 3 cheated him with respect to the said amountby forging and fabricating documents and in that respect the concerned officer of the Bajaj Tempo Limited (i. e. the petitioner as the Senior Sales Manager) having knowledge about such criminal act of the other accused persons, added and abetted to the commission of the said offences. In that respect, complainant further alleged that during the course of verification he also found similar conspiracy made and similar offences committed relating to delivery of vehicle in another case and therefore, the concerned officers from M/s. Bajaj Tempo Limited are also party to the conspiracy. In that connection, he relied upon the documents which were in his (the complainant's) possession.

( 3 ) ON receiving the complaint petition and considering seriousness of the allegations made therein learned S. D. J. M. ordered for an investigation in accordance with sub-section (3) of Section 156 of the Code. After completion of the investigation, a charge-sheet has been filed against the above named accused persons including the petitioner as accused No. 4. So far as the accusation against the petitioner as the Senior Sales Manager of M/s. Bajaj Tempo Limited is concerned, it is stated in the charge-sheet that he had knowledge and informations about the tricks applied by the other accused persons in committing the crime. Therefore, the investigating agency treated the petitioner as the abettor of the offences.

( 4 ) SHRI Ashok Mukherjee, learned senior counsel arguing for the petitioner, has urged that so far as the petitioner is concerned, there is no evidence whatsoever to connect him with the aforesaid crime either as a principal offender or as an abettor. He further argued that from all the materials availab