( 1 ) CHHOTELAL filed a complaint in the Court of Magistrate First Class, Jabalpur, against Gangaprasad Jaiswal, Partner of Messrs. Shri Uma Shankar Oil Mills, allahabad, under Sections 417, 420 and 500 of the Penal Code. In short the allegations were these. On November 22, 1960, Messrs. Shri Gopal Rameshwar das, Jabalpur, entrusted to the complainant a bank draft for Rs. 15,000/- payable to Shri Uma Shankar Oil Mills, Allahabad, by handing over to the said Mills against delivery of 400 tins of mustard oil. The complainant went to Allahabad. There he met the accused Gangaprasad in the premises of the Mills and informed him of having brought the aforesaid draft with the aforesaid instructions. As the complainant was not willing to hand over the draft without delivery of the oil, the accused sent for a truck and loaded it with cans containing the requisite weight of oil. The accused instructed the driver of the truck to carry it to Jabalpur under the complainant's direction. When this was done, the complainant handed over the draft to the accused. No sooner the accused got the draft than he ordered the truck to be unloaded and in spite of complainant's vehement protests the oil cans were removed from the truck and it was sent away. The complainant was threatened with dire consequence if he did not leave Allahabad immediately. The entire atmosphere was charged with menace so that he immediately left for jabalpur. In the mean time, the Jabalpur firm had informd the accused by telegram about having sent the draft and requested him for despatch of the oil. The accused denied the fact of receipt of the draft. He encashed it on the 24th november.

( 2 ) IT is further alleged in the complaint that the accused informed Messrs. Shri gopal Rameshwar Das that the complainant had entered into a bargain with the accused in his own name and on his personal account and had also given the draft as his own money and, further, that the complainant was indebted to the accused to the extent of Rs. 2,500/ -.

( 3 ) IT is then stated in the complaint that on January 6, 1961, the complainant was called at the premises of Messrs. Satya Narayan and Company, Jabalpur, and asked to sign as a witness on an agreement between Messrs. Shri Gopal rameshwar Das of the one part and the accused of the other, in which the aforesaid false story was repeated. The complainant was reluctant to sign even as a witness but eventually he was persuaded to do so on the ground that Messrs. Shri Gopal Rameshwar Das would lose Rs. 15,000/- if the complainant did not sign the document. It is alleged that the complainant signed the agreement as a witness under undue influence.

( 4 ) ON these allegations, it is said in the complaint that the offences of cheating were committed (1) at Allahabad when there was a false representation and the draft was obtained from the complainant, and (2) at Jabalpur when the complainant was made to sign the agreement of the 6th January; and the offence of defamation was committed when the accused deliberately and falsely informed the Jabalpur firm that the complainant had given the draft as his own and had entered into a bargain on his own account and that he was indebted to the extent of Rs. 2,500/ -.

( 5 ) BY way of a preliminary objection the accused challenged the jurisdiction of the jabalpur Court. It was overruled by the trial Magistrate. Me went in revision which has been dismissed by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Jabalpur. Hence this revision. ( 6 ) SHRI R. S. Dabir, learned counsel for the accused contends that the case does not fall within the purview of Section 179 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and since on the complainant's own showing the offence was committed at Allahabad, the Court at Jabalpur has no jurisdiction to try the offence of cheating. As to the offence of defamation he contends that no case is made out even on the allegations made in the complaint and, at any rate, the accused was protected under Exception (9) to

Click Here to Read the rest of this document