A guilty plea must be voluntary, based on informed understanding of charges, and clearly admit guilt for it to be valid under criminal procedure.

(Per: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SHAILENDRA SINGH)

Date : 08-01-2026 As both the appeals have arisen out of the same judgment, hence, they are being decided together by a common judgment.

2. Mr. Pankaj Kumar Sinha, learned counsel for the appellant in Cr. APP(DB) No. 348/2023, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, learned counsel for the appellant in Cr. APP(DB) No. 754/2025, and Mr. Dr. K. N. Singh, learned Additional Solicitor General (ASG), assisted by Mr. Manoj Kumar Singh and Mr. Arvind Kumar, learned Special Public Prosecutors for the NIA, are present and have been heard.

3. Both the appeals have been preferred against the judgment of conviction dated 22.02.2022, by which both the appellants, along with other co-accused Shahnawaj Shaikh @ Shahnawaj Kasuri @ Shahanoyaj Kasuri, were convicted mainly on the basis of their plea of guilty under Section 229 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in short, ‘Cr.P.C.’), and the order of sentence dated 25.02.2022, by which both the appellants were sentenced for the charged offences under Sections 489B , 489C and 120B read with Section 489B of the Indian Penal Code , 1860 (in short, ‘IPC’). For the offence under Section 489B of IPC, both the appellants have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for eight years with a fine of Rs. 5,000/- (Rupees Five Thousand) each, and in default of payment of fine, they have been directed to further undergo simple imprisonment for one month. For the offence under Section 489C of IPC, the appellants have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for two years. For the offence under Section 120B read with Section 489B of IPC, they have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for eight years and also directed to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- (Rupees Five Thousand) each, and in default of payment of fine, they have been directed to undergo simple imprisonment for one month. All the sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

Prosecution story: -

4. The case of the prosecution, in a nutshell, is that one Nitya Nand Chauhan, SHO of Bettiah Town Police Station, received an information about the presence of a member of an inter-state racket involved in trafficking and circulation of fake Indian currency notes in Bettiah, Bihar. On the basis of this information, on 02.02.2019, a team of police personnel of Bettiah Town Police Station, led by the said SHO, arrested one person, namely, Julkar Shaikh, son of Kuddus Shaikh, resident of village Kumbhira under Police Station Baishabnagar, District Malda, West Bengal, and also recovered fake Indian currency notes amounting to Rs. 4,00,000/- (Rupees Four Lakhs) in the denomination of Rs. 2,000/- from his possession. After the recovery and arrest of the said accused, a case was registered vide Bettiah Town P.S. Case No. 118 of 2019 for the offences under Sections 420, 489A, 489B, 489C, 120B and 34 of IPC on the complaint of the SHO of Bettiah Town Police Station. After considering the nature and gravity of the offences, the Central Government transferred the case to the National Investigation Agency (in short, ‘NIA’) for investigation, which was re- registered by the NIA as R.C. No. 04/2019/NIA-DLI dated 21.02.2019. After completion of the investigation, the NIA charge-sheeted the appellants and others vide charge-sheet Nos. 11-B of 2019 dated 11.06.2020 and 11-C of 2020 dated 31.12.2020. The Special Court took cognizance of the alleged offences on 21.05.2019, and on 22.02.2022, the case was taken up by the trial court for framing charges against the appellants and co-accused Shahnawaj Shaikh. Accordingly, charges were framed for the offences under Sections 489B , 489C and 120B read with Section 489B of IPC against the appellants. Both the appellants pleaded guilty to the offences charged, and consequently, they were