Delhi court acquits woman accused of criminal breach of trust in 22-year-old case

New Delhi [India], October 25 : A Delhi court has recently acquitted a woman accused of criminal breach of trust for allegedly misappropriating subscription collected and non-payment of money to the members from whom the money was collected as subscription of the committee (money circulation scheme).
A case of criminal breach of trust read with Section 4 Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act was registered against her at the police station Prasad Nagar in the year 2000.
Chief metropolitan magistrate Siddharth Malik of Tees Hazari Court acquitted Sushila from the offenses of criminal breach of trust and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.
The court said that it is clear that the committee run by the accused falls in the category of 'convention chit' and not 'prize chit'. The 'conventional chit' is not prohibited under the Act and the accused cannot be convicted for running the same.
Further, the default in payment of committee money in favor of a few members is on account of non-payment of subscriptions by the members who were duty-bound to pay the same regularly, the court added.
The court observed, " there is no evidence on record to show that the accused dishonestly misappropriated the money of the subscribers to her own use. There is no investigation by
the IO regarding the manner in which the collected money was used by the accused for her own use.
The court also observed, "Mere fact that the subscribers were paying money to the accused and the same was not returned to them on demand does not attract Section .405/406 IPC. It is necessary that the said collected money should have been misappropriated with dishonest intentions by the accused.
Thus, the evidence on record does not establish the necessary ingredients of Sec 406 IPC, observed in the order of September 28, 2022.
The court said that the accused is accordingly found not guilty and stands acquitted of the offenses punishable under Section 4 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 read with Sec. 406 IPC.
It was argued by advocate Abid Ahmad that no case is made out against the accused Sushila. It is pointed out that all the public witnesses have admitted that many of the members of the committee received the money when their name was drawn in presence of all members of the committee which shows that the accused had no dishonest intention and did not misappropriate any money.
A charge sheet was filed against the accused Sushila under section 406 IPC read with section 4 of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as PCMC Act), with the allegations that during the month of March 1995, the accused had committed criminal breach of trust with a large number of persons by unlawfully collecting money from them and running schemes commonly called as "chit-fund transaction" or "a
committee."
As per the charge sheet, a number of complaints were received by the police against the accused and the common grievance running in all such complaints was that the accused Sushila had initiated a scheme of collecting money every week from different persons. Under
these schemes, an amount of money Rs 300/- was collected from a specific number of people (members of the committee) every week.
The duration of the schemes varied from scheme to scheme. Scheme cards used to be given to all such members and their weekly contributions used to be recorded in them. There used to be the draw of lots on a given date every week. The person in whose name the draw was awarded, was to be given the complete collected amount under discount and all members continued to invest the money.
A lot of money was collected by the accused by inducing the people of her locality and assuring them of good returns and prizes. But subsequently, after collecting the money, the accused refused to pay back the money or prizes to the investors despite persistent demands. It was alleged that the accused misappropriated the monies and converted the same to her own use by failing the pay back the same, Delhi Police alleged.