Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 30 :Principal sessions judge, Bhaderwah, M K Sharma today awarded three and a half years of rigorous imprisonment to man for misappropriating the funds of a madarsa. Shoukat Ali, son of Mohammad Sikander of Chanyas, Gandoh, had misapprproiated funds of Ganyat-ul-Aloom madarsa, Akhyarpur (Jakyas) in Doda district. The madarsa is a high school run by a society. The funds for running the school are generated from the contributions made by the people of the locality. The accused was an employee of the madarsa when the misappropriation was detected in 2005 while complainant Hazi Ghulam Qadir Bhat was its principal. The institution maintained an account of its funds in the Gandoh branch of J&K Bank. On February 7, 2005, the complainant issued a cheque of Rs 10,000 and sent it to the concerned bank for withdrawal. The pass book was also sent by him as some old entries were to be recorded in it. When the pass book was handed over to him, he found that there was a variation of Rs 3,35,000 in the accounts. The complainant immediately called the members of the committee and sent Abdul Gani to the bank concerned to verify the same.
The complainant was informed that on his fake authority letter, a cheque book had been got issued from the bank and out of the said cheque book, seven cheques worth Rs 3,35,000 had been issued and encashed with his fake signatures from time to time. It was further found that the cheque book was got issued by Shoukat Ali. The seal used on the forged cheques was also fake. On the basis of the complaint lodged by the principal, the accused was booked under sections 419, 420, 467 and 468 of RPC at Gandoh police station.
After hearing the two sides, the judge sentenced the accused to rigorous imprisonment for two years and also fined him Rs 10,000 for the commission of offence under section 467 of RPC. He was further sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year and fined Rs 5,000 for the commission of offence under section 468 of RPC and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six months for the commission of offence under section 471 of RPC. In case of default in payment of fine, the convict would suffer simple imprisonment for two months and one month respectively, the court ordered. (JNF) |
