Shivani Pandey-
Published on: August 23, 2021, at 12:38 IST
A Delhi Court while hearing a fraud case against a Woman stated that “The agony of facing a Criminal trial for three decades is in itself no less a punishment than the one eventually inflicted upon Conviction”.
The Court subsequently reduced the imprisonment term of the Woman who was convicted for Cheating in a financial crime case, from three years to five months.
The Court stated that “The Woman deserves greater consideration in the matter of sentencing since the prime of appellant’s youth was lost in facing Criminal Proceedings. There was no loss or destruction of Public Property nor any personal injury inflicted on any Government Official or to any member of the Civil Society”.
The Woman was charged with cheating the Joint Controller of Import and Exports and getting sanctioned a huge amount of Cash Compensatory Support based on the inflated invoice.
The case was registered in October 1990 on the Complainant by the Office of Joint Controller of Import and Exports.
A Magistrate Court in July 2019 had sentenced the accused to three years of rigorous imprisonment as she was found guilty under Section 467 (forgery), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of Cheating), and two years of Imprisonment under Section 468 read with Section 471 (using a genuine forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Sessions Court however did not concur with the findings of the Magistrate Court and stated that “The conviction of the woman under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code alone was affirmed since it stands proved that she had induced the office of Joint Controller of Imports and Exports to sanction her a higher amount of CCS on the basis of an inflated invoice”.
The Court subsequently also reduced the fine to Rs 4 lakh.