A. N. Grover, J. ( 1 ) THESE seven Criminal Appeals (Nos. 97-D to 99-D and 101-D to 104-D of 1963), which arise out of a trial in which as many as 47 persons were committed by Shri J. C. Aggarwal. Special Magistrate, Delhi, on 2nd March, 1962 on charges under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (there being additional charges against some of the accused persons), shall stand disposed of by this judgment. It may be mentioned that the learned Additional Sessions Judge has delivered a Judgment covering 475 pages and the number of documents and the amount of evidence which has been led are numerous and voluminous. Accused Nos. I to 39 may be grouped under the heading "passengers". Accused Nos, 40 to 42 were the Managing Director, the Director and the Manager repectively of the International Travels India Private, Limited, New Delhi (here- inafter called the International Travels ). Accused No. 43 was the erstwhile Director and a promoter of the International Travels. Accused Nos. 44 to 46 were stated to be the associates of accused Nos. 40 to 42 and accused No. 47 was the Port Registration Officer at Cochin. Out of the passengers 12 were acquitted and 27 were convicted under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. It is unnecessary to mention the sentences imposed on them as they have not appealed. As regards accused Nos. 40 and 41 A. N. Gautam and Chanan Singh, the Managing Director and the Director of the International Travels respectively, they were convicted under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471 and sentenced to three years rigors us imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000. 00 each. In default of payment of fine it was ordered that they would undergo further rigorous imrisomnent for six months each. Both of them were also convicted under section 466, read with section 109, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to one year s ligorous imprisonment each, the sentences being concurrent. Accused No. 42 Sardul Singh, the Manager of the International Travels, was convicted under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471 and sentenced to ligorous imprisonment for six months. Accused Nos. Accused No. 42 Sardul Singh, the Manager of the International Travels, was convicted under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471 and sentenced to ligorous imprisonment for six months. Accused Nos. 43 and 44, Rup Lal and Kapil Dev, were convicted under section 12d-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471 and sentenced to four months ligorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 2,000. 00 each. In default of payment of fine they were to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for three months each. They were also convicted under section 466, read with section 109, of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to three months ligorous imprisonment each, the sentences being concurrent. Accused No. 45 Darshan Singh was convicted under section 120-B, read with section 465, 466 and 471 and sentences to one year s ligorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 2,000. 00. In default of payment of fine he was to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for three months. He was also convicted under section 466, read with section 109, and sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment, the sentences being concurrent. Accused No. 46 Harbhajan Singh was convicted under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471, and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for four months and a fine of Rs. 1,000. 00. In default of payment of fine he was to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for two months. Accused No. 47 was acquitted honourably. It would be useful to mention at this stage that Chaman Lal, one of the alleged co-conspirators, had turned an approver and the Court was of the opinion that he had made a full and true disclosure of all the circumstances within his knowledge relating to the offence and to the accused persons and that he had earned his pardon. It was directed that he be discharged. The present appeals have been filed by A. N. Gautam, Chanan Singh, Sardul Singh, Rup Lal, Kapil Dev, Darshan Singh and Harbhajan Singh, all of whom were either officeholders of the International Travels or were stated to be closely associated with it. They will be hereinafter collectively called wherever necessary "travel agents". It was directed that he be discharged. The present appeals have been filed by A. N. Gautam, Chanan Singh, Sardul Singh, Rup Lal, Kapil Dev, Darshan Singh and Harbhajan Singh, all of whom were either officeholders of the International Travels or were stated to be closely associated with it. They will be hereinafter collectively called wherever necessary "travel agents". ( 2 ) ACCORDING to the prosecution, the passangers, the travel agents and the Port Registration Officer were parties to a criminal conspiracy during the period 1956 to October 1959, having for its objects the doing or causing to be done illegal acts and acts which were not illegal by illegal means, namely, to obtain fraudulently passports from persons of various places and after obtaining the same to forge them, in the manner which would be mentioned at a later stage, and to forge other travel documents and to use the forged passports and other travel documents as genuine and to enable the intending passengers to proceed to United Kingdom and other foreign countries under either assumed names or assumed parentage. It was alleged that the accused passengers sailed by the ship M. V. Roma" on 14th October, 1959 from Cochin. They travelled on the strength of passports (Exhibits P. 1 to P. 20) containing forged entries and endorsements and ether travel documents which hall turned out to be forged and that with the exception of four accused persons (Nos. 8, 14, 17 and 19), the passengers did net travel in their own names. It is cominon ground that the passage of the passengers was bocked through the International Travels, who were one of the recognised agents of Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield limited, Cochin, who were the general agents for India for Lauro Lines. The reason and the motive behind the activities of the conspirators was stated to be the avowed policy of the Government regarding granting of passports to Indians who were anxious to go abroad. The Government did not want illterate or somi-illiterate persons to go to United Kingdom and other European countries for paddling and other petty jobs and for that purpose even the work cf issuing passports came to be entrusted to the Regional Passport Officer, New Delhi, instead of the State Governments in 1954. The Government did not want illterate or somi-illiterate persons to go to United Kingdom and other European countries for paddling and other petty jobs and for that purpose even the work cf issuing passports came to be entrusted to the Regional Passport Officer, New Delhi, instead of the State Governments in 1954. Thus, according to the prosecution, the travel agents employed various means to make spunious documents for which they charged heavy amounts from the passengers, most of whom wanted to go abroad at any cost on the prospect that they would earn a lot of money there either as laboure s, factory or manual workers, paddlers or by pursuing similar vocations. ( 3 ) AT this stage the background in which the conspiracy came to light may be stated. The International Travels had booked passage of 199 persons on M. V. Roma, which was to sail from Cochin on 14th October, 1959. The police of the Criminal Investigation Department received information before the ship was to sail that a number of uneducated and unskilled labourers were going to United Kingdom by this ship on forged passports and other travel documents. Information was sent to appropriate authorities at Cochin and Madras saying that about 20 to 30 persons were expected to sail by that ship on such forged documents. Inspite of this all the passengers were allowed to embark on board the ship. Thereafter similar information was passed on to the Indian Embassy at Rome in Italy. The first Secretary to the Embassy there made arrangements for the checking up of the passports as soon as the ship M. V. Roma touched Ganga on 29th October, 1959. After the checking hadbeen done by Shri Gangoli Public Witness. 161, who had been deputed for the purpose, he was not satisfied about the genuineness of the passports and travel documents relating to accused Nos. I to 22. They were handed over to the Italian authorities and were put up in Immigration Camps. Accused Nos. 23 to 89 out of the passengers, who were said to be travelling on British passports, were not permitted by the British Immigration authorities to land when they reached United Kingdom and they were detained in prison, because their passports were suspected to contain forged entries. Fifty-two passengers, including accused Nos. Accused Nos. 23 to 89 out of the passengers, who were said to be travelling on British passports, were not permitted by the British Immigration authorities to land when they reached United Kingdom and they were detained in prison, because their passports were suspected to contain forged entries. Fifty-two passengers, including accused Nos. 23 to 89, were sent back to India in a chartered flight which landed at Santa Cruz Airport in Bombay on 4th November, 1959. It is alleged that for the first time accused Nos. 23 to 39 offered to give their correct names and particulars and it was found that they differed from these mentioned in their embarkation cards and the documents of identity. Subsequently other passengers also arrived in India and their statements were recorded. It: is unnecessary to give the details about the statements made by thse various passengers and groups of passengers on which the first information reports cams to be lodged. All that need be stated is that the first information report in respect of 52 persons, including the passengers, was recorded at the instance of Shri Dalip Singh, City Inspector, Jullundur, on 14th November, 1959. It was stated inter alia in that report that a gang of passport rocketeers had established travelling agencies at Jullundur and some other cities. The agents of these travelling agencies charged heavy amounts ranging from Rs. 2. 000. 00 to Rs. 7,000. 00 for sending persons anxious to go to United Kingdom and other countries through bogus and forged passports. Information had been received from reliable sources that the agents of Messrs Ranjit Travelling Agency, Messrs Kapoor Travels, Post Office Road, Jullunder City, Messre T. Singh, Amar Basera Buildings, G. T. Road, Jullundur City and other travelling agencies at Jullundur had cheated and dishonestly induced many persons intending to go abroad to pay them heavy amounts under the pretext of making passports and affording passage facilities. Although the name of International Travel s was not mentioned, but it is common ground that this concern had a branch office at Jullundur. Although the name of International Travel s was not mentioned, but it is common ground that this concern had a branch office at Jullundur. ( 4 ) ON 9th February, 1960 Chamanlal,wh3 as will be presently seen, is alleged to have taken a very active part in the conspiracy, was arrested and on 15th February, 1960 an application was made to the Additional District Magistrate saying that Chaman Lal had made a confessional statement to the police and had disclosed the facts and circumstances in his knowledge relating to the offences which had been committed by him and his co-accused and that he had fully implicated himself. It was prayed that his confession be recorded under section 164, Criminal Procedure Code. Shri M. M. Aggarwal, Magistrate 1st Class, Delhi, was deputed to take necessary action in the matter. The confessional statement of Chaman Lal (Exhibit P. 21) was recorded on 19th February, 1963 after complying with the provisions, of section 164 of the Code. According to the prosecution the investigation which had been carried out, of which the details have been mentioned at great length by the learned trial Judge, showed that the International Travels, which had its head office in Delhi and branch offices at Jullundur and Nawanshahr, happened to be one of the travel agencies which had engaged in the business of forgoing passports and other travel documents to enable other persons to go abroad and that A. N. Gautam, the Managing Director, was the leader and Chanan Singh Atwal, one of the Directors, Roop Lal anghar, ex-Director, and Sardul Singh, the Manager, were all actively invovled in the aforesaid business and so were Kapil Dev, Darshan Singh and Harbhajan Singh. It was alleged that there was another associate of the travel agents of the name of Ram Nath who was arrayed as an accused person bs fore ths committing Court but whose case had later on to be separated because he turned insane during the commitment proceedings. It was alleged that there was another associate of the travel agents of the name of Ram Nath who was arrayed as an accused person bs fore ths committing Court but whose case had later on to be separated because he turned insane during the commitment proceedings. ( 5 ) THE charge which was framed against all the 47 accused persons was as follows:- "that you and others during the period 1956 to October, 1959 in the Districts of Jullundur, Hoshiarpur and other places were party to a criminal conspiracy having for its objects the doing or causing to be done illegal acts and acts which are not illegal by illegal means, there- with to obtain fraudulently passports from persons of various places and after obtaining the same to forge them by removing photographs of the original passport-holders wherever necessary and by replacing or substituting them with the photographs of intending passengers wherever necessary and by making or causing to be made false endorsements therein with regard to the countries for which they were never issued or with regard to the period of validity of the same or with regard to the addition of children to suit the intending passengers and to forge ether travel documents and to use suck forged passports and other travel documents as genuine, knowing or having reason to believe that they were forged and to enable the intending passengers to proceed to United Kingdom and other foreign countries on those passports and other travel documents either as adult or as children under assumed names or assumed parentage wherever necessary or under both and that you all thereby committed offences punishable under section 120-B read with sections 465, 466 and 471, Indian Penal Code, and within the cognizance of the Court of Session, Delhi. " An additional charge was framed against nine persons out of the passengers, namely, accused Nos. 1,4 to 7, 9, 11, 16 and 18, to the effect that in pursuance of the said conspiracy during the aforesaid period they fraudulently impersonated in assumed names before tile French and Italian Embassies and obtained transit visas from those Embassies and thereby committed the offence punishable under section 419, Indian Penal Code. 1,4 to 7, 9, 11, 16 and 18, to the effect that in pursuance of the said conspiracy during the aforesaid period they fraudulently impersonated in assumed names before tile French and Italian Embassies and obtained transit visas from those Embassies and thereby committed the offence punishable under section 419, Indian Penal Code. The travel agents were also charged for commission of offence punishable under section 466 read with section 109, Indian Penal Code, the charge being that in pursuance of the said conspiracy during the aforesaid peried they had caused to be forged entries in the passports (Exhibits P. 1 to P. 20) purporting to be made by public servants in official capacity, ( 6 ) I have mentioned the charges in detail in order to deal with certain questions of law which have been debated at length by Mr. Frank Anthony, who has appeared for A. N. Gautam and Sardul Singh appellants, and Mr. A. S. Chari, who argued thecase of Chanan Singh and Rup Lal appellants. These points had been canvassed before the learned trial Judge also and it will have to be determined whether his decision relating to them is erroneous and, if so, to what extent and with what effect. In order to appreciate the first contention of the learned counsel for the appellants reference may by made to Exhibit P. W. 104/1, which is the sanction granted by the Chief Commissioner under Sub-section (2) of section 196-A of the Criminal Procedurt Code for the prosecution of all the accused persons under section 120-B read with sections 465, 466 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. There is no dispute that this sanction was duly granted by the Chief Commissioner of Delhi. The submission which has been made is that in view of section 196-A (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code the Court could not take cognizance of the offence of criminal conspiracy in a case where the object of the conspiracy was to commit either an illegal act other than an offence or a legal act by illegal means, unless upon complaint made by order or under authority from the State Government or some officer empowered by the State Government in that behalf. The document (Exhibit P. W. 104/1), it is said, does not satisfy the requirements of the aforesaid provisions, which is mandatory in terms and the non-compliance with which would render the trial void and illegal. It is pointed out that under section 190 of the Criminal Procedure Code cog- nizance of an offence can be taken by Magistrates only in the following manner:- (A) upon receiving a complaint of facts which constitute such offence; (b) upon a report in writing of such facts made by any police- officer; (c) upon information received from a. ny person other than a police-officer, or upon his own knowledge or suspicion, that such offence has been committed. According to the learned counsel, the object of the conspiracy as alleged by the prosecution and embodied in the first charge was to send the passengers (39 in number) abroad and the various means alleged to have been adopted as set out in the charge were- (I) to obtain fraudulently passports from persons of various places ; (ii) after obtaining the same to forge them by removing photographs of the original passport-holders wherever necessary; etc ; (iii) by making or causing to be made false endorsements therein with regard to the countries for which they were never issued, etc; (iv) by making addition of children to suit the intending passengers ; (v) to forge other travel documents, and (vi) to use such forged passports and other travel documents as genuine. If the object was to send the passengers abroad, and the other matters mentioned in the charge were only the means to gain that end, section 196-A (1) would at once become applicable, because it would only amount to commission of a legal act by illegal means. In Kenny s Outlines of Criminal Law (Eighteenth edition) it has been stated in Article 53 that attempt may be classed as one of the three crimes which are essentially preliminary, the other two being incitement and conspiracy, for each one of these crimes is effected as a means of reaching a desired end. The desired end in the present case was the going of the passengers to foreign countries so that they might get lucrative jobs as workers, and for that purpose any. number of means could be adopted. The desired end in the present case was the going of the passengers to foreign countries so that they might get lucrative jobs as workers, and for that purpose any. number of means could be adopted. The gilt of conspiracy, as stated in that book at page 95, is the agreement, whether or not the object is attained, and the purpose of making such agreement punishable is to prevent the commission of the substantive offence before it has even reached the stage of attempt. The agreement, if any, in the present case as between the travel agents and the passengers as also between the passengers inter se could only bs to make all possible arrangements for their leaving this country and residing, even though temporarily, in either the United Kingdom or some other foreign country for the purpose of making livelihood there By way of illustration it is pointed out that the passengers either collectively or individually had nothing to do with obtaining fraudulently passports from persons of various places, which is alleged to have been done solely by the travel agents. Emphasis has been laid on the result which will follow it if is held that there were a number of the objects of the conspiracy which have been stated in the charge. This would mean that there were a number of conspiraries which were altogether unrelated and if they had been rolled into one, the trial would be tainted and vitiated by illegality according to authoritative decisions of Courts, ( 7 ) THE first question, therefore, which has to be resolved is whether the object of the conspiracy, as embodied in the charge, was to enable the intending passengers to proceed to United Kingdom and other foreign countries on the forged document, i. e. the passports, the income- tax clearance certificates etc. There is little doubt that a passport is issued by the Government to an intending traveller, in the name of the head of a State, for his safe passage to and protection in a foreign country, and that the Government in this country may be guilty of contrav ention of Article 14 of the Constitution if it refuses the application for a passport. Such a document, however, is necessary when an Indian citizen has to enter India from abroad (see Choithram Verhomal Jetimani v. A. G. Kazi. Such a document, however, is necessary when an Indian citizen has to enter India from abroad (see Choithram Verhomal Jetimani v. A. G. Kazi. If the object of the conspiracy merely was to send the passengers to foreign countries, it would be a plausible view to take that it would amount to the doing of a legal act although illegal means may have been employed for the purpose and it would be necessary for the conditions laid down by section 196-A (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code to be satisfied before any cognizance could 53 taken of the offence of criminal conspiracy. ( 8 ) MR. Mehta for the State says that the objects of the conspiracy in the present case were those which have been stated in the charge, namely, the fraudulent obtaining of passports from persons of various places and after obtaining them to forge them by removing photographs, etc. , and by making or causing to be made false endorsements therein. If these were the objects of the conspiracy it would bs wrong to say that the object was the last one stated in the charge, namely, to enable the intending passengers to proceed to United Kingdom and other foreign countries. He maintains that it is clearly stated in the charge itself that the objects were the doing or causing to be done illegal acts and acts which were not illegal by illegal means, which were than stated, and it was the use to which the forged documents were put which was indicated in the last materialclause of the charge, which when read as a whole showed that that could not be the sole object. He says that there can be a plurality of objects in a conspiracy and there need not be one object only to which it is directed. According to Mr. Mehta there was one common object of all the conspirators, namely, to forge and use forged documents. He says that in a conspiracy each conspirator must know the object of the conspiracy and so long as the prosecution has been successful in proving the same it was not necessary for one passenger to know that another passenger was also similarly involved. He says that in a conspiracy each conspirator must know the object of the conspiracy and so long as the prosecution has been successful in proving the same it was not necessary for one passenger to know that another passenger was also similarly involved. ( 9 ) BEFORE the authorities relied upon by the learned counsel for both sides are considered, it will be useful to refer to section 10 of the Indian Evidence Act, which provides that where there is a reasonable ground to belive that two or. more persons having conspired together to commit an offence or an actionable wrong, anything said, done or written by any one of such parsons in reference to their common intention, after the time when such intention was first entertained by any one of them, is a relevant fact as against each of the persons believed to be so conspiring, as well as for the purpose of proving the existence of the conspiracy as for the purpose of showing that any such person was a party to it. jenkins C. J. in Barindra Kumar Chose v. Emperor , REFERRED TO the obseivations in Mulcahy v. Queen, that a conspiracy consists not merely in the intention of two or more, but in the agreement of two or more to do an unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. S. 3 long as such a design rests in intention only, it is not indictable. When two agree to Carry it into effect, the very plot is an act in itself, and the act of each. of the parties, promise against promise, actus contra actum, capable of being enforced, if lawful, punishable if for a criminal object or for the use of criminal means. In the Principles and Digest of the Law of Evidence by Monir, 4th Edition, the following statement based on Taylor is to be found at page 52 :-- "it is not necessary that the accused. should have joined the conspiracy from its inception. It makes no difference at what time the party accused is proved to have entered into a conspiracy or combination; because everyone who agrees with others to effect a common- illegal purpose, is generally considered in law" as party to every act which either had before been done, or may afterwards be done, by the confederates, in furtherance of the common design. One or two individuals may have concocted the scheme, but all who afterwards Jo in incarying it out are equally guilty with the originators. Neither dees it matter whether the acts were. done, or the declarations made in the presence or in the absence of the accused, but everything said or done by any one of the conspirators or accomplices. in furtherance of the common object is evidence against each and all of the parties concerned, whether they are present or absent, and whether or not they were individually aware of what was taking place. "in Bishamber Nath Tandon v. King-Emperor the principal accused was a khazanchi (Treasurer) of the local branch of the Imperial Bank of India. In order to grow rich quickly he devised a highly ingenious scheme by which he got cash from the Bank mainly for speculative purposes. The illegal acts alleged against him inter alia were to forge hundis, demand drafts, vouchers and letters and to use them fraudulently and dishonestly as genuine and to commit criminal breach of trust by criminally misappropriating money of the Bank of Bengal, afterwards the Imperial Bank of India, and further to cheat by giving false opinion as to the financial position and commercial standing of certain firms etc. A number of points were decided in this case to some of which reference will be made later. Dealing with the argument on behalf of the defendants that a conspiracy could be proved if every one of the appellants was connected with a particular hundi, cheque or demand draft Dalal J. C. said that it was not necessary that every conspirator should be so connected. Seme might help in the discounting of certain bills; some in a few others; and some in the rest. The connection had to be established with the conspiracy and not with the separate acts of different conspirators which were the avert acts of the different individuals in proof of the conspiracy. It was further observed that there was only ore. conspiracy, namely, to cheat the. Bank in the interest of the Khazanchi aird that of his fellow conspirators and it was not necessary that the connection of every single conspirator, with every other should be proved; nor even the knowledge of every one of all the other conspirators. It was further observed that there was only ore. conspiracy, namely, to cheat the. Bank in the interest of the Khazanchi aird that of his fellow conspirators and it was not necessary that the connection of every single conspirator, with every other should be proved; nor even the knowledge of every one of all the other conspirators. So long as the knowledge of every conspirator of the existence of a conspiracy and his agreement to take part therein was proved he was guilty as a conspirator. Accorgding to Mr. Mehta, the conispiracy substantially was to forge and use forge documents for the purpose of enabling the passengers to go abroad and once that conspiracy had been establiahed it was not necessary that the connection of every single conspirator with every other should be proved nor even the knowledge of every one of all the other conspirators. He has relied on what was stated in the police report on which cogni- zance was taken by the Magistrate under section 190 of the Criminal Procedure Code wherein it is stated in paragraph I as follows :- "that during the period between the year 1956 and. the month of January, 1960 accused Nos. 1 to 50 were parties to a criminal conspiracy, to commit offences of forgery and of fradulently or dishonestly using as genuine forged documents knowing or having reason to believe the same to be forged, in order to enable the accused 1 to 39 and others to proceed to United Kingdom and other countries otherwise than on the basis of valid passports in consideration of their having paid or having agreed to pay heavy sums of money to Messrs International Travels (India) Private, Limited, Delhi. "mr. Mehta s submission is that in that report the object of the conspiracy has been clearly stated to be to commit offences of forgery and of fraudlenfly or dishonestly using as genuine forged documents knowing or having reason to believe the same to be forged forthe aforesaid purpose. As cognizance was taken on this report there was due compliance with law when sanction had been obtained under clause ,2) of section 196-A of the Criminal Procedure Code. ( 10 ) I find it difficult to accede to the contention of the learned counsel for the appellants that the prime object of the conspiracy was to send the passengers abroad. ( 10 ) I find it difficult to accede to the contention of the learned counsel for the appellants that the prime object of the conspiracy was to send the passengers abroad. The dominant intention apparently was to make spurious documents. They might not have been used for going abroad because it was not obligatory on the passengers to go to foreign countries. When various forgeries were made the object was to make certain documents appear to be genuine for such use as could be made of them. For intance, Chaman Lal, the approver, who admittedly made the foigeries in the passports which were used by the passengers, could not have shared any intention with the other conspirators or even with the passengers for whose benefit they were made of sending them abroad. That was not his concern as it. would be for each passenger to decide whether at a given time he wanted to go to a foreign country or not. The common intention essentially was to forge documents and to use such forged documents for a purpose for which they could be used, namely, travelling to a foreign country. The other details, which have been given in the charge, could well be regarded as either the methods or the manner in which the spurious documents were to be made. The principal and main object was to forge and to use forged documents for enabling the passengers to go abroad. In R. K. Dalmia v. The Delhi Administration, the charges which had been framed against the appellants have been REFERRED TO by Mr Mehta for the purpose of showing that there could be a number of objects of a criminal conspiracy. In Tulsi Ram v. The State of Uttar Pradesh, it was said- "a reference is made to other sections of the Code to indicate the objects of the conspiracy, that is to cheat and to commit forgery. The charge by referring to various sections of the Indian Penal Code merely makes it clear that the object of the conspiracy was to forge railway receipts, which were valuable securities, to commit forgeries for the purpose of cheating and to use forged documents as genuine. "according to Mr. R. L. Mehta, the charge in that case could well be said to have been framed in a similar way as in the present case, viz. "according to Mr. R. L. Mehta, the charge in that case could well be said to have been framed in a similar way as in the present case, viz. , the object of the conspirncy was to do not one act but various acts. It would also appear that there can be a plurality of objects of the conspira cy, e. g. , to cheat and to commit foregeries (as per observations made above ). The learned counsel for the appellants have not REFERRED TO any decided case in which the point which is being examined came up directly for consideration. It would seem from the dictum of their Lordships that there can be a plurality of objects of a conspiracy and it need not be confined to one object only. Further even if there be one object it may be to do a number of acts, e. g. , forging of railway receipts, committing forgeries for the purpose of cheating and using forged documents as genuine as in Tulsi Ram s case. It can well be said that in the present case the-object of the conspiracy was to do the various acts which have been stated in the charge or alternatively what was stated in the police report on which the congnizance of the offence was taken. Nevertheless the object was such as would attract the applicability of clause (2) of section 196-A and not clause (1 ). ( 11 ) THE authorities from which support has been sought by the learned counsel for the appellants for the view that where there are several unrelated conspiracies or a series of conspiracies unconnected by unity of intention the trial would be bad, may next be noticed. . In Mohammad Ismail v. Emperor, the question which had been raised was whether there was a conspiracy to engage in a series of offences and illegal transactions. It has been observed at page 101 that sumggling of charas into Jubbulpore is not a thing which is inherently impracticable without the existence of a big combine and if the applicants are justified in saying that all the evidence relied on is consistent with the operation merely of disjoined groups, then the charge brought against them would not stand. The learned Judge was not satisfied in that case there was one general conspiracy including the applicants and, therefore, the convictions were set aside. The learned Judge was not satisfied in that case there was one general conspiracy including the applicants and, therefore, the convictions were set aside. It was also said that if only a number of unrelated conspiracies were proved the trial would be found to be bad for misjoinder of parties under section 239 of the Criminal Procedure Code. In Rash Behari Shaw v. Emperor, certain persons had been charged under section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, read with section 39 of the Electricity Act, and section 379 of the Indian Penal Code for having been parties to a criminal conspiracy to commit theft by dishonest consumption and user of electrical energy. There were two classes of operators, namely, (1) those who did the actual tampering and (2) the consumers and their servants who allowed the tampering to be done. The first class of the operators were in agreement and had one object in view, namely, to obtain unlawful money by tampering with meters whenever possible and the second class had in view the object of wrongful gain to themselves by allowing tampering of their meters and the making of a false record of the amount of electric energy consumed by them. It was held that the accused could not be said to have been parties to one and the same extensive conspiracy nor could the acts complained of, be said to have been done in pursuance of any conspiracy. On appeal being taken to the Privy Council (A. I. R. 1938 P. C. 130) the decision which came to be given was confined to the true effect of section 239 (d) of the Criminal Procedure Code. It was held that the relevant point of time in the proceedings at which the condition as to sameness of transaction must be fulfilled was the time of accusation and not that of the eventual result and although it was found that the form of the charge was most irregular and regrettable but it was held that since there had been no miscarriage of Justice the irregulatities were curable under sections 225 and 537 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The Court of Criminal Appel in R v. Davey, held that where seven accused, including the two appellants, had been indicted on account, among others, of conspiracy to defend creditors of many companies in various dates extending between June, 1947 and June 1958 and some ofthe seven accused had nothing to do with the afaits of some of the companies, two of which were wound in 1953, the count of conspiracy was had in that separate conspiracies were charged thereby as one conspiracy. . At page 540 it was observed that such account might bs called a "rolled-up" charge of conspiracy. In R. v. Dawson, it was said at page 564: "there is more than this in the present case, for this Court after very careful: consideration, of this point, is of opinion that this, was not one conspiracy. Although conspiracy there was, it was a number of conspiracies. Dawson was, dealing with orange Juice the was dealing with buses, bogies and landing vehicles, and he was dealing with bills of exchange, with different kinds of people at different times over a period of three years. The count charges conspiracy with, I think it is, some twelve men, of whom six were actually charged and three convicted. It is an odd circumstance that one person named Eland was included in a count as one of the conspirators, and in a later count included as one of the victims, which illustrates again the great difficulties in which one is placed by these abnormally long conspiracy charges. ". From the above cases the learned counsel for the appellants have sought to argue that- (1) Passenger "a" may have joined in a conspiracy with the travel agents to forge and use forged documents for the purpose of going to foreign countries but it is not possible to say that passenger "b" joined passenger "a" in a similar conspiracy. . (2) The objects of the conspiracies were different and to draw the parallel from A. I. R. 1936 Cal, 753 the set of persons who had one object, namely, to obtain unlawful money by tampering with passports and; other travel documents were the travel agents and the other set were the passengers who, had the object of getting the tampering etc. done of the documents to enable them to go abroad. done of the documents to enable them to go abroad. They could not, therefore, besaid to be parties to one and the same extensive conspiracy. (3) This is not a case of a single conspiracy and there are separate conspiracies in. respect of each passenger. (4) As all the distinct and several conspiracies have beenrolled up into one, the entire trial stood vitiated and deserved to be qnashed. The submission of Mr. Mehta is that although there was only one conspiracy, yet even on the assumption that there were seprate conspiracies in respect of each passenger all that could be said was that there was a misjoinder of charges and since no objection had been taken to the charge as framed either at the commencement of the trial or during its pendency till the stage of arguments it is not open to the appellants to agitate the matter now. In any case they are bound to show some serious prejudice having been caused to them as a result of misjoinder of charges. It has been pointed out that even in A. I. R. 1936 Cal. 753 which went up to. the Privy Council it was held that unless miscarriage of justice had been caused there could be no interference and irregularities in the joinder of charges would be curable under section 537 of the criminal Procedure Code. He has also. relied on section 239 (d) which provides that persons, may be charged and tried together when accused of different offences committed in the course, of the same transaction. As regards section 537 the explanation appearing thereunde has been emphasised. According to. the explanation, in determining whether any error, omission or irregularity in any proceeding under the Code has occasioned a failure of Justice, the Court shall have regard to the fact whether the objection could and should have been raised at an earlier stage in the proceedings. In The State of Andhra Pradesh v. Chermala pati Ganeswara Rao, it has been observed that when no objection was taken to multiplicity or misjoindar of charger before the learned trial Judge and it was only in the High Court. that the point was raised, the Court has to consider whether prejudice has in fact been caused to the accused by reason of the multiplicity of charges or misjoinder, if any, of the charges. that the point was raised, the Court has to consider whether prejudice has in fact been caused to the accused by reason of the multiplicity of charges or misjoinder, if any, of the charges. This is quite clear from tha provisions of section 537 of the Code, as amended by Act 26 of 1955. At page 1865 it has been laid down that the offence of conspiracy is an entirely independent offence and though other offences are committed in pursuance of the conspiracy the liability of the conspirators for the conspiracy itself cannot disappear. Mr. Mehta says that since the offence of conspiracy is a substantive offence a charge could be preferred against all the 39 passengers and the travel agents in respect of that offence and, therefore,. as stated before, at worst there has been only a misjoinder of charges which in the circumstances already discussed will not vitiate the trial. It is pointed out that the English cases which have been relied upon on behalf of the appellants though laying down the correct principle would not bs applicable here in the matter of setting aside of the trial in the absence of the conditions laid down in section 537 of the Code. The learned counsel for the appellants, on the other hand, say with an equal amount of emphasis that the very fact that 39 conspirators have been joined together shows that prejudice has resulted from such a misjoinder of charges. ( 12 ) IN my opinion, the contentions of the learned counsel for the appellants cannot prevail. I concur in the view of the learned trial Judge that there was one conspiracy which had been, to use tha phraselogy employed by the learned Judge, hatched by the travel agents and which had for its object doing and causing to be done the various acts mentioned before and the passengers joined in that conspiracy inasmuch as pursuant thereto they travelled as passport holders on passports belonging to other persons by giving their photographs to be affixed on the passports and on the applications for obtaining French and Italian visas and agreed to travel in assumed names. For instance, Ratna is proved to have affixed his thumb-impression on the International Certificate of Vaccination and he gave his photograph to be affixed on the passport and the applications for obtaining French and Italian visas and he affixed his thumb-impression on them. as also on the Embarkation Card in form E. The learned Judge is right in saying that Ratna and other passengers who acted similarly participated in the conspiracy which is alleged to have been hatched by the travel agent. According to the prosecution, the travel agents at first started the work of obtain- ing passport booklets and. even though the passengers might not have been parties to the same they became parties to the conspiracy the object of which was to forge and use forged documents for enabling the passengers to go abroad when with the intention of travelling on those passports they gave their photographs- for substitution of the original photographs. They similarly helped in completing the forgeries and other documents like International Certificates of Vaccination. The trial Judge has further observed that after completing the forged travel documents, the passengers with theactive help of some of the travel agents who were personally present at Cochin to supervise the operations went through the embarkation formalities in assumed names. The conspiracy, therefore, was one and could not be split up into a large number of small unrelated conspiracies. I further consider that the passengers became parties to the conspiracy because their connection had to be established with the conspiracy and not with the separate acts of different conspirators nor was it necssary that the knowledge of every one of all the other conspirators should be proved as laid down in Biharmber Nath Tandon v. King Emperor. So long as the knowledge of every conspirator of the existence of a conspiracy and his agreement to take part therein was proved he was guilty as a conspirator. ( 13 ) AS regards the objection that several unrelated conspiracies had been rolled up into one, it is not possible to accept the same for the reasons already mentioned. So long as the knowledge of every conspirator of the existence of a conspiracy and his agreement to take part therein was proved he was guilty as a conspirator. ( 13 ) AS regards the objection that several unrelated conspiracies had been rolled up into one, it is not possible to accept the same for the reasons already mentioned. At any rate, the most that can be said is that theere has been a misjoinder of charges and since no objection was raised at the commencement of the trial or during the long period for which it lasted except at the stage of arguments and in the absence of any serious prejudice having resulted, I would hold that any such irregularity or irregularities would be cured under section 537 of the Criminal Procedure Code. ( 14 ) THE next point of law which has been raised on behalf of appellants A. N. Gautam and Sardul Singh by Mr. Frank Anthony is that certain evidence relating to the acts of one Ram Nath who had figured as a co-conspirator at the stage of commitment proceedings has been taken into consideration by the learned trial Judge although his case had been separated owing to his having turned insane before the charge was framed. It is also pointed out that the name of Ram Nath was not mentioned in the charge and, therefore, anything done or said by him had to be excluded from consideration. It is not. disputed on behiaf of the State that certain material evidence relating to the part played by Ram Nath has been taken into consideration by the learned trial Judge but it is contended that no objection was taken when such evidence was produced at the trial and the mere omission of the name of Ram Nath from the charge did not cause any prejudice to the appellants as they were fully aware that the prosecution would rely on the aforesaid pieces of evidence. It is further pointed out that the name of Ram Nath was duly included in the police report and the order granting sanction under section 196-A (2) and that was sufficient to fix the defence with the knowledge that he was being named as a co-conspirator. Mr. It is further pointed out that the name of Ram Nath was duly included in the police report and the order granting sanction under section 196-A (2) and that was sufficient to fix the defence with the knowledge that he was being named as a co-conspirator. Mr. Mehta has relied on the observations in Sardul Singh Cawshar v. The Slate of Bombay that under section 10 of the Evidence Act evidence relating to the conduct of a co-conspirator is admissible whether he is alive or dead or whether on trial before the Court or not. In my view, the other authority cited by Mr. Mehta, namely, Bimbadhar Pradhan v. Stale of Orissa, would conclude this point. There it was argued on behalf of the appellant that he was charged only with a conspiracy with the other accused persons and not with any conspiracy with the approver along with those others. It was clear from the words of the charge that the approver had not been specifically named as having been one of the conspirators unless he could be brought within the category of other accused persons. After referring to section 222 of the Criminal Procedure Code, their Lordships have said that it is noteworthy that that section which requires the particulars of the offence to be stated does not in terms further require that in an offence like conspiracy the names of the co-conspirators should also be mentioned. Though in India it is not obligatory to mention the names of the persons concerned in the crime of criminal conspiracy it is always advisable to give those particulars, in order to give a reasonable notice to the accused. As the omission to mention the name of the approver had not been shown to have misled the appellant or occasioned a failure of justice the prosecution case throughput being clear with reference to the petition of complaint, the provisions of section 537 of the Code were hi Id to be attracted to the case. I can find little difference in principle between the position in that case and the present case. It is true that about the approver the accused would have noticed that he was a coconspirator but even with regard to Ram Nath his name was mentioned in the police report and he was arrayed as a co-conspirator before the committing Court. I can find little difference in principle between the position in that case and the present case. It is true that about the approver the accused would have noticed that he was a coconspirator but even with regard to Ram Nath his name was mentioned in the police report and he was arrayed as a co-conspirator before the committing Court. His case was separated only because he turned in sane. In the charge preferred against the appellants the word "others" appears and the only question is whether the appellants had a reasonable notice that they had been charged with having conspired with him as well. When evidence was sought to be led about the acts of Ram Nath as a co conspirator no objection was taken on behalf of the appellants. It sterns to me that these appellants were fully aware of the case of the prosecution that Ram Nath was alleged to be a co-conspirator and the matter would be covered by section 537 of the Cods inasmuch as no objection was raised when the evidence relating to the acts of Ram Nath was produced at the trial. ( 15 ) NOW, there are certain facts which are not disputed and may be set out before the evidence given by the approver, Chaman Lal, and the other witnesses as also the documentary and circumstantial evidence which had been led to corroborate the statement of the approver or to implicate each one of the appellants is examined. (1) The International Travels was incorporated on 11th May 1953 at Delhi having its registered office at 25-E, Connaught Place, New Delhi. The promoters of the company were Rup Lal, A. N. Gautam and Chanan Singh. These three were the first Directors. On 11th February 1958 Rup Lal was not re-elected as a Director. A. N. Gautam was throughout the Managing Director. Prior to the incorporation of the company A. N. Gautam had a firm which was doing the same business of travel agents in the name of Gautam and Sons. The other appellants are not connected with the International Travels as office-holders, share-holders or employers. (2) Chaman Lal approver stayed in a portion of house No. 15-A/ 26 in the Western Extension Area (also known as the Ajmal Khan Road) except for a brief interval in 1957 during the period of the alleged conspiracy, namely, from 1956 till after October 1959. (2) Chaman Lal approver stayed in a portion of house No. 15-A/ 26 in the Western Extension Area (also known as the Ajmal Khan Road) except for a brief interval in 1957 during the period of the alleged conspiracy, namely, from 1956 till after October 1959. (3) The passports (Exhibits P. 1 to P. 20) on the strength of which the passengers travelled contained forged entries which were all made by the approver, Chaman Lal, with the exception of theforged signatures of the Regional Passport Officer. According to the case of the prosecution those signatures had been forged by Darshan Singh but no proof was led at the trial with regard to the same. The manner in which the forgeries were done and how the traval documents were made is clear by referring to one passport, namely. Exhibit P. 1. One Daulat who appeared as Public Witness. 39 filed an application for the grant of a passport (Exhibit?. W. 2/d) sometimes in the year 1950 affixing his photographs with the same. These photographs are Exhibits P. W. 2/g and Public Witness. 2/f. He affixed his thumb-impression on the application as he was illiterate The passport was issued to him on which a copy of his photograph was afixed. He could rot proceed to Aden for which the passport had been granted. The photograph on the passport (Exhibit P. 1) is of Ratna accused No. 1. He assumed the name of Daulat. The writing marked P. 1 (a) at page 6 was of Chaman lal. Also at page 7 the writing marked P. 1 (3) which contained an endorsement making the passport valid for travel to Pakistan, Ceylon, Egypt, Italy, Fiance Switzerland and United Kingdom whereas the countries for which the passport was originally valid when issued on 3rd August 1950 were India and Aden had been made by Chaman, Lal. At page 8 the writing marksd P. 1/c was also of Chaman Lal. This contained additions of two children, Karma and Prita, who were stated to be the children of the holder. It may be mentioned that in the original application filed by Daulat there was no mention of his children nor did he have any such children as were shown to him in Court, namely, Raj Kumar and Mohan Lal accused Nos. 2 and 3 respecthely who had purported to travel along with Ratna on this passport. It may be mentioned that in the original application filed by Daulat there was no mention of his children nor did he have any such children as were shown to him in Court, namely, Raj Kumar and Mohan Lal accused Nos. 2 and 3 respecthely who had purported to travel along with Ratna on this passport. (4) The income-tax clearance certificate (Exhibit P. W. 18/n) relating to the passport (Exhibit P. 1) purported to bear the signatures of Shri H. S. Puri, Income-tax Officer, Amritsar. This had not been issued by the aforesaid officer and was clearly a spurious document but it had not been proved with regard to this income-tax clearance certificate and other similar certificates, which were required to be obtained under section 46-A of the Income tax Act, 1922 (Exhibits P. W. 18/a to P. W. 18/v) as to who had made,these documents. (5) Exhil it Public Witness. 6/g is the International Certificate of Vaccination relating to the passport (Exhibit?. 1 ). It purports to bear the signatures of Dr. Y. D. Rishi, District Medical Officer (P. W. 15) and Dr. R. L. Jaitley, Additional District Medical Officer (P. W. 16) but in fact these officers had never put the seals on these certificates or signed them. All the International Certificates of Vaccination relating to the 20 passports in question were suprious with the exception of one, namely Public Witness. 7/j which alone was genuine and which related to Arjan Ram who travelled in his own name on passport (Exhibit) P. 6,. It was, however, not been proved as to who had forged the signatures of the aforesaid two doctors or made these documents. ( 16 ) AS regards some of ths other material documents, namely, the visa applications, the. embarkation cards, the baggage and currency declaration forms, the writings and thumb-impressions thereon are disputed and, therefore, it will be necessary to decide about the forgeries, if any, in respect of these documents at a later stage. ( 17 ) IT is necessary now to refer to the statement of the approver, Chaman Lal Public Witness. 1. He gave afull,account of his impressive academic record ending with the passing of the B. Sc. examination form the D" A. V. College, Ambala City, in the year 1956, in which he missed the Firsc Class by three marks standing third in the University. 1. He gave afull,account of his impressive academic record ending with the passing of the B. Sc. examination form the D" A. V. College, Ambala City, in the year 1956, in which he missed the Firsc Class by three marks standing third in the University. After passing that examination he went to Rewari where he. tried to secure a job but without success. One 0m Parkash Malik happened to be his friend and he was running a private institution by the name of Rajdhani College which was located in building No. 15-A/26, Ajmal Khan Road, New Delhi, 0m Parkash advised him to do some work in that institution. Chaman Lal came to Delhi in August or September 1956 and started teaching in that college for which he was paid about Rs. 30. 00 to Rs. 40. 00 per mensem. He used to reside in the college premises along with Om Parkash Malik. One of the rooms in that building was used by three persons whose names were Kapal Dev, Roop Lal and Ram Nath, Soon after he had started work in that institution, Kapal Dev got acquair ted with him and showed interest in him. He introduced him to Roop Lal and Ram Nath. They had kept a servant of the name of Mohan Singh who used to prepare their meals. After two months of his joining the Rajdhani College, Kapal Dev called him to his room and told him that there was a part-time writing fob for him for which he would be paid Rs. 30 per mensem. He accepted that offer. On the following day Kapal Dev called Chaman Lal to his room and showed him a passport which was in the form of a book. Kapal Dev wanted him to make certain entries in that passport. Chaman Lal pointed out to him that passports were prepared in the passport office, but Kapal Dev replied that he belonged to the travel agents and that his agency made arrangements for passports for persons who wished to go abroad. Kapal Dev also took him into confidence and told him that he was making forged passports. Chaman Lal in view of his poor financial position and his friendship with Kapal Dev and his associates started doing the job of making forgeries on petty remuneration. According to him he made entries on the dictation of Kapal Dev. Kapal Dev also took him into confidence and told him that he was making forged passports. Chaman Lal in view of his poor financial position and his friendship with Kapal Dev and his associates started doing the job of making forgeries on petty remuneration. According to him he made entries on the dictation of Kapal Dev. Roop Lal also used to consult the calendar in order to ensure that no date was filled which was a holiday. Whenever these. forgeries were made all the three persons, namely Kapal Dev, Roop Lal and Ram Nath, used to be present. Once when he was called to make entries, he was introduced to A. N. Gautam who was described as Director of the travel agents. He was also introduced to Harbhajan Singh as one of the co-workers. After staying for six or seven months in Delhi, Chaman Lal returned to Rewari, where he stayed for two months, when he got a letter from Ram Nath asking him to return to Delhi. Thereupon he returned to Delhi and on the asking of Kapal Dev made entries in five or six passports, for which he was paid Rs. 15. 00. He again went back to Rewari. In September, 1957 he got the post of a science teacher in a school at Rewari and later was appointed as an Assistant in the Zonal Office of the Life Insurance Corporation, New Delhi, which post he joined in November 1957. He Then took a small room on rent on the first floor of the building inwhich there was the Rajdhani College, where Kapal Dev and Roop Lal were still staying in the same room where as Ram Nath had left. In the month of February or March 1958 Ram Nath came to Chaman Lal s room one day and asked him to accompany him to Partap Bagh where entries had to be made. He took him to a flat there where some villagers were present and entries were made on the dictation of Ram Nath in 7 or 8 passports. After 1 months Ram Nath again came to his room and asked him to go to Partap Bagh as before to make entries in passports which he did and for which he was paid Rs. 15. 00 as on the previous occasion. After 1 months Ram Nath again came to his room and asked him to go to Partap Bagh as before to make entries in passports which he did and for which he was paid Rs. 15. 00 as on the previous occasion. Two or three months later Ram Nath introduced to him a Sikh gentleman of the name of Darshan Singh, who was supposed to be doing the same job. After that Ram Nath and Darshan Singh used to either singly or jointly come to his room at various intervals and he would make entries in the passports or the International Vaccination Certificates. The outer door used to be bolted from inside and once some South Indians, who were residing in the adjacent and opposite rooms, witnessed certain altercation between some of the friends of Chaman Lal, named Anil Kumar, Sudesh Kumar, Subhash Chander and Sushil Chander, who had knocked at the door and whom Chaman Lal avoided seeing on the ground that he was busy. After that altercation he returned to his room and made the entries as desired by Darshan Singh. In the month of April or May, 1959 Darshan Singh asked Chaman Lal to accompany him to Yusaf Sarai for the purpose of making entries in the passports; At Yusaf Sarai another Sikh gentleman was introduced to him as Chanan Singh. He was told that Chanan Singh was doing the same job and he made entries in eight or ten passports at his dictation. In the month of September or October, 1959 Chaman Lal accompanied Darshan Singh to West Patel Nagar, where he took him to a flat. There he met Ram Nath, Chanan Singh and A. N. Gautam. He was also introduced to Sardool Singh as an associate. He made entries in eight or ten passports, mostly on the dictation of Chanan Singh. The other accused also told him to make entries on the passports. He revisted West Patel Nagar once or twice for the purpose of making entries. During his visits to that flat he saw Ram Nath taking off old photographs from the passports with the help of water knife, etc. , and replacing the leaves in the passports which were spoiled. Ram Nath used to forge signatures or affix thmb-impressions on the slips pasted below the photographs on the passports. During his visits to that flat he saw Ram Nath taking off old photographs from the passports with the help of water knife, etc. , and replacing the leaves in the passports which were spoiled. Ram Nath used to forge signatures or affix thmb-impressions on the slips pasted below the photographs on the passports. Darshan ,singh used to forge the signatures of the passport Officer on the passports. Darshan Singh also used to forge the signatures or affix thumb-impressions on the slips pasted under the photographs on the passports. The main job of Chanan Singh was to dictate the entries to be made in the passports of which -he kept a memorandum, which was done to avoid repetition. He also sometimes forged signatures or affixed his thumb-impressions on the slips under the photographs on the passports. A. N. Gautam used to give advice to his associates whenever it was required and sometimes he also gave dictation to. him (Chaman Lal ). Sardool Singh would fill up the visa forms and take them to the embassies. The various forged entries in the passports (Exhibit P. 1 to P. 20) had been made by Chaman Lal. He further identified all the appellants in the Court as the persons whose names he had mentioned. ( 18 ) THE facts elicited from him in cross-examination by the various appellants will he mentioned when the case of each appellant is taken up for consideration. It may be pointed out that according to the prosecution the forgeries in the passports (Exhibits P. 1 to P. 20) were made by Chaman Lal in September or October, 1959, although he himself did not give any dates when he made these forgeries in the aforesaid passports. It is also common ground now that no evidence has been produced to show that Ram Nath used to forge signatures or effix thumb-impressions on the slips pasted below the photographs on the passports or that Darshan Singh used to forge the signatures of the Passport Officer on the passports or on the slips pasted under the photographs in the passports. No evidence has further been produced that Chanan Singh forged signatures or affixed his thumb-impressions on the slips under the photographs on the passports. No evidence has further been produced that Chanan Singh forged signatures or affixed his thumb-impressions on the slips under the photographs on the passports. The prosecution has not led any other evidence about the visits of Chaman Lal to Partap Bagh in February or March, 1958 or Yusaf Sarai in April or May, 1959. Before me it was agreed that the material period for the purpose of the forgeries on the passports by Chaman Lal would be September/october, 1959, during which period, according to him, he went to the flat in West Patel Nagar and made the forgeries, although he has not specifically stated that the. forgeries in the passports (exhibits P. I to P. 20) were in fact made in the West Patel Nagar flat. I have mentioned these matters at this stage because it will immediately have to beconsidered to what extent the evidence of the approver was corroborated in material particulars by other evidence, " acts and circumstances and further to what extent his evidence was corroborated in respect of the implication of each one of the appellants. ( 19 ) NOW, it has been laid down authorititatively that the requirement of corroboration of the evidence of an accomplice is a rule of prudence so universally followed as to amount almost to a -rule of law. Corroboration is required in material respects so as to implicate the accused {bhuboni Sahu v. The King) It is not necessary that there should be independent confirmation of every material circumstance. All that is required is that th?re must be some additional evidence rendering it probable that the story of the accomplice is true and that it is reasonably safe to act upon it. The independent evidence must not only make it safe to believe that the crime was committed but must in some way reasonably connect or tend to connect the accased with it by confirming in some material particular the testimoney of the accomplice that the accused committed the crime. It Is not necessary. that corroboration should be by direct evidence. It is sufficient if it is merely circumstantial evidence of the connection of the accused with the crime {rameshwar v. The State of Rajasthan ). It is not necessary to have corroboration of all the circumstances of the case or every detail of the crime. It Is not necessary. that corroboration should be by direct evidence. It is sufficient if it is merely circumstantial evidence of the connection of the accused with the crime {rameshwar v. The State of Rajasthan ). It is not necessary to have corroboration of all the circumstances of the case or every detail of the crime. It would be sufficient if there was corroboration as to the material circumstances of the crime and of the identity of the accased in relation to the crime R. v. Baskeroilw* relied on in Major E. G. Barsav v. State of Bombay and Bhiva Doulu Patil v. State of Maharashtra. As regards the reliability of an approver, he has always been regarded as an infamous witness and it would not be correct to think that before reliance could be placed on his evidence it mast appear that he is a penitent witness. Whether the evidence of the approver should beaccepted or not will have to be determined by applying the usual tests such as the probability of the truth of what he has deposed to, the circumstances in which he has come to give evidence, whether he has made a full and complete disclosure, whether his evident is merely self-exculnatory and so on and so forth. The Court has, in addition, to ascertain whether his evidence has been corrobiorated sufficiently in material particular. What is necessary to consider is whether applying all these tests the evidence of the approver should be acted upon (The State of Andhra Pradesh v. Cheemalapati Ganeshwara Rao ). ( 20 ) THE learned trial Judge was of the view that the evidence of Chaman Lal had been corroborated in all material particulars. This part of his decision may be summarised in the following manner:-- (I) The evidence of Chaman Lal regarding the association of the travel agents with one another in all matters was fully corroborated. (ii) The passengers who had travelled on the forged passports' were all residents of villagers in central districts of Punjab. Chaman Lal could have had no opportunity of coming into contact with them. The travel agents, particularly A. N. Gautam and Chanan Singh, who belonged to that side, had greater chances of comig into contact with the passengers than Chaman Lal. (iii) Chaman Lal on his own could not even arrange to get passport booklets. Chaman Lal could have had no opportunity of coming into contact with them. The travel agents, particularly A. N. Gautam and Chanan Singh, who belonged to that side, had greater chances of comig into contact with the passengers than Chaman Lal. (iii) Chaman Lal on his own could not even arrange to get passport booklets. He had no contact with the passport office and the manner in which all the forged endorsements had been made showed some knowledge of the working of that office. (iv) A. N. Gautam had been carrying on the business of a travel agent since 1948 and must have been well versed in the working of the passport office. (v) The passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20) in which the forged endorsements had been made by Chaman Lal had come into the possession of the International Travels by which the passage of the passengers had been booked and a. number of applications for obtaining French and Italian visas had been forged by Sardul Singh and A. N. Gautam and after obtaining the visas on the passports Sardul Singh had sent them to Cochin in a manner which had not been explained. This furnished corroboration of the statement of Chaman Lal that the passports came to him from the travel agents and that the passports had not come to him from any other source. (vi) It was proved that Chaman Lal was financially in a bad way and that Kapil Dev had rented a room in the same building where Chaman Lal was living. The opportunities to come into touch with each other and to take advantage of Chaman Lal's straitened circumstances were abudantly present. (vii) There was corroboration by independent testimony of Sushil Chander and Anil Kumar Public Witness s. regarding the quarrel which took place when Chaman Lal was making forged- entries at one time. Some of the South Indian witnesses who were completely independent supported the version of the quarrel, Sushil Chander even identified Darshan Singh in Court as the person who was with Chaman Lal at the time when this incident took place. Some of the South Indian witnesses who were completely independent supported the version of the quarrel, Sushil Chander even identified Darshan Singh in Court as the person who was with Chaman Lal at the time when this incident took place. The residence of Chaman Lal approver, Kapil Dev and Rup Lal appellants in the same building, i. e. , 15-A/26, Western Extension Area, Karol Bagh, New Delhi, was proved by independent eviden e. (viii) The evidence of Chaman Lal regarding his visits to the West Patel Nagar flat in the company of Darshan Singh and meeting Sardul Singh and their other associates was corroborated by the evidence of Charan Das (P. W. 53) owner of house No. 35/11 West Patel Nagar. (ix) It was also proved that Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield who were the General Agents in India for Laurolines and of whom the International Travels were one of the recognised agents had received the entire money relating to the fare of 199 passengers booked by the Internatunal Travels on M. V. Roma ircluding that of the passengers. (x) A letter was sent (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/13) dated 6th October, 1959 from the Intetnational Travels to the General Agents, Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield bearing the signat:ures of Sardul Singh enclosing a list (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/14) giving the names of 120 passengers who had been booked on definite basis on M. V. Roma. This list contained the names amongst others of the passengers. who with the exception of two travelled in assumed names. (xi) The list (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/14) which was smt along with letter (Exhibit Public Witness. 32/13) was typed on the instructions of A. N. Gautam and in the list the names were typed in the serial order but had been grouped in the blue and red pencil and this grouping is said to have been done by Sardul Singh under instructions of A. N. Gautam On the last page of this list the :ink writing encircled and marked 1/9 was made by Chanan Singh. In this list some of the names which were the real names of the passengers concerned were altered in the writing of Sardul Singh to assumed names to bring them in accord with the possports. (xii) The letter (Exhibit P. W. 82/19) dated 10th Octob'r, 1959 written on behalf of the International Travels bore the signatures of Sardul Singh. It contained an. (xii) The letter (Exhibit P. W. 82/19) dated 10th Octob'r, 1959 written on behalf of the International Travels bore the signatures of Sardul Singh. It contained an. admission that the travel documents were being checked by the travel agents with regard to the passengers whose passage had been sent and a request was made to the shipping agents to check the documents of those passengers whose documents could not be completed and who would pay the money direct. It had, however, been proved that no payments were received direct by the shipping agents from the passengers. (xiii) The Italian visas showed that they had been granted on. 13th October, 1959 whereas the ship was to sail on 14th October, 1959. These must have then been delivered to the shipping agents directly by some of the travel agents and the passengers who must have left earlier for Cochin could not have taken them as also the. other travel documents along with them. (xiv)Theairconsignmentnote (Exhibitp. W. 103/3) showed that the travel documents had been sent by the travel agents by air and were not with the passengers. Such a consignment was sent on 11th October, 1959 by Sardul Singh. to C. S. Atwal c/o Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield Ltd. , Cochin. It is recorded in the Air Consignment Note that the contents of the consignment were travel documents. (xv) Out of the travel agents, A. N. Gautam, Chanan Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Darshan Singh went to Cochin. The fact that they incurred the expense, of flight by air to that. place indicated their anxiety to see that embarkation of the passengers took place smoothly. Admittedly the travel agents were to get 7 per cent commission and in normal. 'circumstances all the aforesaid persons could not afford the luxury of air travel if their object was simply to look after the convenience of the passengers. (xvi) The evidence of certain hotel owners in Cochin showed that some of the travel agents including Chanan Singh and A. N. Gautam took the trouble of even making payments for some of the passengers and making arrangements for their stay in the hotels. A. N. Gautam, Chanan Singh and Darshan Singh also_visitedthe passengers whowere staying in these hotels a? did Harbhajan Singh. A. N. Gautam, Chanan Singh and Darshan Singh also_visitedthe passengers whowere staying in these hotels a? did Harbhajan Singh. (xvii) The writings of A. N. Gautam and;,sa?-dul Singh on the visas applications were proved by the evidence of the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents and the thumb-impressions on some of them were proved by the evidence of the Director, Finger Print Bureau, Phillaur. On seven of the visa applications the thumb- impressions are of Ram Nath. The body writings on most of the visa applications tallied with the specimen writing of Sardul Singh and the body writings on certain visa applications (six in number) was in the writing of A. N. Gautam. Thus the applications for obtaining French and Italian visas had been proved to have been formed in the office of the International Travels by A. N. Gautam and Sardul Singh by filling in the applications in the names of the original passport holders and by affixing the photographs of the intending passengers who expected to travel in the assumed names of the passport holders and if the intending passenger was available he was asked to sign or thumb-mark and in case 'the passenger was not present Ram Nath, who appeared to be handy, was asked to affix his thumb-impressions. Out of 24 applications for the grant of visas only the thumb-impressions of Ratna accused No. 1 agreed with his thumb-impressions and the signatures of only three persons, namely, Nirmal Singh accused No. 16, Jhalman Singh accused No. 18 and Raghbir Singh accused No. 29 tallied with their respective signatures. (xviii)' Even if the evidence of the witnesses who deposed to the passports having been fraudulently obtained by the travel agents from various places and persons be not believed the fact remained that the original passports of certain passport holders some how or the other fell into the hands of the travel agents for which they gave no explanation. ( 21 ) I shall now proceed to take up the case of each one of the appellants and while discussing the same a number of matters relating to the corrcboration of the statement of Chaman Lal as also other facts and circumstances on which their convictions has been based will be cleared. ( 21 ) I shall now proceed to take up the case of each one of the appellants and while discussing the same a number of matters relating to the corrcboration of the statement of Chaman Lal as also other facts and circumstances on which their convictions has been based will be cleared. ( 22 ) AS regards A. N. Gautam appellant, the learned trial Judge in paragraphs 583 and 584 has discussed the general aspect of his being the leader and the brain behind the conspiracy. What has to be necessarily determined is whether there is sufficient evidence to connect him with the conspiracy and whether the charges preferred against him have been proved beyond doubt. Mr. Anthony has urged that so far as the approver is concerned, he mentions Gautam only twice On the first occasion Chaman Lal says that he was introduced to Gautam who had been described as a Director of the International Travels. This was at a time when all the three persons Kapil Dev, Rup Lal and Ram Nath used to be present for getting forgeries made. It is common ground that this would bs during-the period 1956-57. The second occasion was when the forgeries in the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20) are stated to have been made by Chaman Lal in September or October 1959 in the West Patel Nagar flat where according to Chaman Lal, Gautam used to give advice to his associates whenever it was required and sometimes he would himself give dictation to him. The most material piece of evidence, therefore, for purposes of corroboration would be of P. W. 53 Charan Das, the owner of the West Patel Nagar flat. According to him, he had completed the construction of the house in September 1959. He kt out the newly constructed portion in the first floor to Sardul Singh appellant on 11th September 1959 at Rs. 90. 00 per mensern. Sardul Singh paid rent to him up to 2nd November 1959 and thereafter vacated the house. Apart from some of the other appellants, A. N. Gautam used to visit Sardul Singh when he was in occupation of that accommodation. He produced counter-foils (Exhibits Public Witness. 53/1 and Public Witness. 53/2) of th? rent receipts which he gave to Sardul Singh and which according to him bore the signatures of Sardul Singh at. the back. Apart from some of the other appellants, A. N. Gautam used to visit Sardul Singh when he was in occupation of that accommodation. He produced counter-foils (Exhibits Public Witness. 53/1 and Public Witness. 53/2) of th? rent receipts which he gave to Sardul Singh and which according to him bore the signatures of Sardul Singh at. the back. He asked Sardul Singh to vacate the premises let out to him because when he took the same it was. understood that he would bring his family but since he failed to do SJ he was asked to vacate the premises. In cross-examination he admitted that Sardul Singh had executed a rent note but explailed that the same had been returned to Sirdul Siagh on 3rd November 1959 when he vacated the house. The rent note was not written on a stamp paper but on a printed form which had been supplied by a property dealer, Mr Gupta, throught whim the. aforesaid portion had been let out to Sardul Singh. According to him, Sardul Singh introdduced Gautam to him probably after about 20 or 22 days of his taking the premises on rent. A. N. Gautam along with other persons used to visit the house often. Sometimes he would come alone and sometimes with the other appellants. A good deal of criti ism has been levelled by the learn d coansel for the appel'ants against the evidence of Charan Das. It has been stated that the counterf ils of the receipts which he produced only related to the period 14th October 1959 to 2nd November, 1959 and that there was nothing to show that the accon. modation in question had been rested out to Sardul Singh on 11th September, 1959. The explanition given by Chiran Das was that he had purchased a printed racapt book probably on 1st or 2nd Octoba, 1953 and the rent receipt for the previous peri )d had been given to Sardul Singh on a plain paper. The countar-foil (Exhibit P. W. 53/1) related to the rent from 14th October 1959 to 25th October 1959 and the second counter-foil (Exhibit P. W. 53/2) to the period 26th October, 1959 to 2nd November, 1959. The countar-foil (Exhibit P. W. 53/1) related to the rent from 14th October 1959 to 25th October 1959 and the second counter-foil (Exhibit P. W. 53/2) to the period 26th October, 1959 to 2nd November, 1959. The suggestion on behalf of the defence now is that Charan Das was under the influence of the police and had perjured himself by making a statement that the accommodation in question had been on rent on 11th September, 1959. Now, the question whether the evidence of Charan Das should be believed or not is of material consequence because according to the prosecution it was in the accommodation rented out by him to Sardul Singh in West Patel Nagar in which all the forgeries in the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20) were made by Chaman Lal. It is common ground that these forgeries must have been made prior to 10th October, 1959 and therefore, if Sardul Singh took over that accommodation on 11th October, 1959; then the statement of Chaman Lal would be false on that vital p'int. I find it difficult to agree with the suggestion that it was under the pressure or influence of the police that Charan Das made a statement that Sardul Singh had taken the accommodation on ll thseptember, 1959. Nothing has been brought out in his cross-examination to show that the police had any hold on Charan Das or he was involved in any case or was likely to be involved in any case so as to give a handle to the police to pressurise him. It is true that the property dealer, Mr. Gupta, could have been produced and that he was not produced but that by itself would not falsify the statement of Charan Das. The manner in which the questions were put to him in cross-examination involved an admission of the position that Sardul Singhhadin fact taken the accomodation on rent from him but that was from 14th October, 1959 and not from 11th September, 1959. Sardul Singh should have thrown light on the matter but he stoutly denied ever having taken the aforesaid premises on rent even for the period for which the counterfoils of the receipts had been produced (see answers to questions 21 of 23 ). Sardul Singh should have thrown light on the matter but he stoutly denied ever having taken the aforesaid premises on rent even for the period for which the counterfoils of the receipts had been produced (see answers to questions 21 of 23 ). In my opinion, the evidence Charan Das cannot be discarded and once it is accepted, one important part of the statement of Chaman Lal would stand corroborated. ( 23 ) MR. Frank Anthony has pointed out that Gautam was the Managing Director of the International Travels and, therefore, even on the assumption that Sardul Singh had taken the accommodation from Charan; Das in West Patel Kagar there would be nothing unusual in Gautam coming there and having been seen by Charan Das. That may be so, but what is being examined at' this stage is whether Sardul Singh had taken the accommodation in West Patel Nagarand whether Gautam used to go there either singly or in the company,of one or the other of the appellants. To my mind the testimony of Chaman Lal about the visit of Gautam to the West Patle Nagar fiat stands ccrrol. orated by the evidence of Charan Das. ( 24 ) COMING now to the other evidence which has been produced against Gautam to connect him with th conspiracy and the commission of other offences, certain visa applications which. aie stated to be in his writing may be considered. The prosecution has relied inter alia on six of such applications (Exhibits P. W. 20/e. F, G. J, and K and P. W. 23/e ). the learned trial Judge hag in paragraphs, 247 to 250 of the Judgment discussed the evidence of the experts produced by both sides and was inclined to agree with the opinion expressed by the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents , that these writings were of Gautam. The first five were-applications filed on behalf of some of the passengers in the French Embassy and according to the. prosecution, the body writings were of A. N. Gautam. : The sixth one (Exhibit Public Witness. 23/e.) was a visa application filed before -the Italian Embassy. PW. 149 Shri N. Dass Gupta, Examiner of Questioned Documents of the Government of India. stated that he examined the writing sin question and compared them with the specimen Writings taken from Gautam. It appears that unfortunately the writings which. were taken. : The sixth one (Exhibit Public Witness. 23/e.) was a visa application filed before -the Italian Embassy. PW. 149 Shri N. Dass Gupta, Examiner of Questioned Documents of the Government of India. stated that he examined the writing sin question and compared them with the specimen Writings taken from Gautam. It appears that unfortunately the writings which. were taken. from Gautam were not of the same words as are to be found in the aforesaid visa applications but the Expert gave his reasons in detail about the design. and movement of the various letters found in the visa applications and the admitted writings of Gautam as also of certain words and came to the conclusion that they were of the same person. As has been pointed but by the learned trial Judge, the Government expert was not at au questioned in cross-examination about the testimony given by him on the afore- said matter. Mr. A. S. Kapur, who appeared as D. W. 6, is a private handwriting expert, and in his opinion the disputed writings on the applications for the grant of visas did not tally with the specimen writings of Gautam. In cross-examination, however, he made certain, admissions about the similarity in some of the letters in the admitted and the disputed writings which have been set out in paragraph 249 of the judgment. I have my self made careful examination of some of the letters common to both the writings and there is certainly a striking and marked similarity. There are. various items of what may be called external and internal evidence in addition to the opinion of the expert which show that th" visa applications in question were in the writing of Gautam. It is noteworthy that according to the evidence which has not been challenged, all the applications for French and Italian visas were presented by Sardul Singh appellant on behalf of the International Travels. The visa applications which are stated to be in the writings of Gautam were filled in either by him or by someone else in his office and it was for him to explain who had done it. . According. to Mr. The visa applications which are stated to be in the writings of Gautam were filled in either by him or by someone else in his office and it was for him to explain who had done it. . According. to Mr. Anthony, the passengers who filed those visa applications might have got them filled up by some outside agency or person but it is hard to believe that when all these applications were taken by Sardul Singh, who was an employee of the International Travels to the respective Embassies, they would have been filled in by someone who had nothing to do with the International Travels. In any case Sardul Singh and Gautam were expected to give some explanation or make some suggestion as to who had filled in these visa applications which were taken by Sardul Singh to the Embassies for obtaining the visas and in the absence of any explanation whatsoever the Court would be justified in taking this circumstance against the appellants. It has also been contended on behalt of the prosecution that the passposts (Exhibits?. I to P. 14) were taken by Sardul Singh from the Italian Embassy on 13th October, 1959 as is 'clear from the evidence of Mr. J. Fabiani (P. W. 28 ). Mr. Gordon Reginald Hyde, Exective Incharge of Harrisons and Crossfield, Limited, Cochin, who appeared as Public Witness. 82 stated that the travel documents were carried by the travel agents by whom he meant Chanan Singh Atwal and Gautam who represented the International Travels. These documents included the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20), health certificates and income-tax clearance certificates. The case of the prosecution 'was that Gautam flew to Cochin on 13th October 1959 and that he carried the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 14) which had been returned by the Italian Embassy to Sardul Singh and some other travel documents and handed over the entire lotto Mr. Hyde on the 14th October 1966. Gautam when questioned about the handing over of the passports (Exhibits PI to P. 20) to the representative of Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield, denied having handed over the same. According to him, the passports and all other travel documents were collected by the representative of Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield at Ernakulam station from the passengers themselves according to the instructions of the Steam Ship Company. He even tried to give an. According to him, the passports and all other travel documents were collected by the representative of Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield at Ernakulam station from the passengers themselves according to the instructions of the Steam Ship Company. He even tried to give an. evasive reply to the question whether he flew to Cochin on 13th -October, 1959 by suggesting that; he did not remember. about it owing to lapse of time. That position, however,. has not been adopted by his counsel before me and it is now common ground that he did go to Cochin by air on the aforesaid date and that he returned on 15th October 1959. Mr. Anthony has endeavoured to assail the testimony of Mr. Hyde on the ground that the latter wanted to save being implicated himsalf but the testimony of Mr. Hyde is perfectly consistent with the other proved facts that the visa applications relating to the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 14) were not ready and were only handed over to Sardual Singh, Manager of the International Travels, on 13th October 1959. The passports and the visas, therefore, must have been despatched somehow to Cochin by 14th morning and even if Gautam did not take: them someone else whose identity has not been disclosed must have taken them on behalf of the International Travels or possibly they. might have been sent by air but it was for Gautam and Sardul Singh to throw some light on the matter which they refused to do and, the refore, we are left with the fact that the aforesaid passports reached Cochin at the nick of time so as to be handed over on 14th October 1959 by Gautam or Chanan Singh who w-re representing the International Travels at Cochin and making arrangements with regard to the passengers as also other passengers whose passage hand been booked on M. V. Roma. Madan Lal (P. W. 103) who worked as a typist in the office of the International Travels at the relevant time stated that a letter had been snt from the office (Exhibit P. W. 82/13) of which a list (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/14) was enclosed. This list was typed by him on the instructions of Gautam. Madan Lal (P. W. 103) who worked as a typist in the office of the International Travels at the relevant time stated that a letter had been snt from the office (Exhibit P. W. 82/13) of which a list (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/14) was enclosed. This list was typed by him on the instructions of Gautam. The names were typed in serial order and were grouped in blue and red pencil under the instructions of Gautam, This is the list about which more will have to be said later, but it is established from the evidence of Madan Lal that Gautam was not a mere figure head but was taking an active part as ha was even otherwise presumed to do in the day todayworking of the International Travels. In cross examination he admitted that a number of persons used to come from Punjab and enquired about Gautam and Chanan Singh. Sardul Singh who Would ask them to show their travel documents but they would say that they only wanted to see Gautam or Chanan Singh. This was in answer to a question put in cross-examination by Sardul Singh. ( 25 ) MR. Anthony contended that according to Charan Das. Gautam and Chaman Lal were not seen together at the West Patel Nagar flat which fact if established could have been used by the prosecution for connecting him with the knowlege of the part which was being played by Chaman Lal, namely, of making forgeries in the passports. But ^iien it has been established that Sardul Singh had taken on rent the accommodation in West Patel Nagar for a temporary period in September/october, 1959 it would furnish corroboration of the evidence of Chaman Lal that there was such a house in that locality and which according to the evidence of Charan Das P. W. was in fact visited by the appellants including Gautam already mentioned while discussing his evidence. As to whether the conviction of Gautam should be sustained or not this will be decided after I have discussed the evidence relating to the individual cases of each one of the other appellants. ( 26 ) CHANAN Singh appellant who was a promoter Director has been involved by Chaman Lal as having participated actively in the conspiracy on. a number of occasions. ( 26 ) CHANAN Singh appellant who was a promoter Director has been involved by Chaman Lal as having participated actively in the conspiracy on. a number of occasions. The criticism which has been offered in respect of his evidence is that there is no independent corroboration of his association with Chaman Lal and further that Chaman Lal could not say with regard to the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20) at whose dictation, whether of Chanan Singh or the other co-conspirators, he made the entries in those passports. On behalf of the prosecution it has been pointed out that the statement of Chaman Lal regarding the association of Chanan Singh with the other conspirators is fully established by the evidence of Charan Das (P. W. 53 ). This witness stated that Chanan Singh used to visit Sardul Singh and A N. Gautam in the West Patel Nagar house. According 'to him, Chanan Singh even stayed there in the absence of Sardul Singh. Chaman Lal deposed to having met Ram Nath, A. N. Gautam and Chanan Singh at the West Patel Nagar house. According to him he made entries in 8 or 10 passports mostly on the dictation of Chanan Singh. He could not, however, say in which of the passports he made entries at his dictation. The evidence of Chaman Lal. therefore, stands corroborated so far as the visits of Chanan Singh to the West Patel Nagar house are. concerned. His association with some or other of the co-conspirators is also proved by the evidence of Charan Das. . ( 27 ) THE prosecution has sought to rely on other independent evidence which is stated to implicate him. Public Witness. 134 Mehar Singh stated that he applied for a passport four years ago, by means of an application (Exhibit P. W. 2/gg) for obtaining a passport for Thailand. A passport was actually obtained by him. He did not utilize the passport for Thailand on account of his illness. He gave that passport to Chanan Singh for endorsement for Fi]']'i or any other country. He further told him that in case no such endorsement could be obtained the passport should be returned to him. There was no talk of any money being charged for the aforesaid purpose by Chanan Singh. If the passport had been endorsed he had only to pay the passage money forgoing abroad. He further told him that in case no such endorsement could be obtained the passport should be returned to him. There was no talk of any money being charged for the aforesaid purpose by Chanan Singh. If the passport had been endorsed he had only to pay the passage money forgoing abroad. Mehar Singh said that the passport was never returned to him. This passport had been given about 3 years ago. When he was shown the passport (Exhibit P 9) it was found that it did not bear his photograph but at the time he gave it to Chanan Singh his photograph like Exhibit Public Witness. 2/gg-1 was affixed on the passport. As he was illiterate he could not say whether Exhibit P. 9 was his passport. He was cross-examined by Chanan Singh who put to him only one question in answer to which he stated that it was incorrect to suggest that he was deposing falsely against him at the instance of the police. Mr. Chari has subjected the evidence of this witness to severe criticism. He has pointed out that there is a good deal of discrepancy about the date when the application for the passport was made and when the passport was alleged to have been handed over to Chanan Singh. Moreover, the statement of Mehar Singh that he had given the passport to Chanan Singh for getting endorsement made for Fijil or any other country was altogether vague. The conduct of Mehar Singh in not making any effort to get this passport back was also unusual and quite not normal. According to the learned trial Judge, he found it established from the evidence of Shri A. R. Malhotra (P. W. 26) who was at one time Under Secretary to Punjab Government that Mehar Singh did obtain a passport which was valid when it was originally issued. As Mehar Singh could not utilize this passport because he had fallen ill, he must have wanted to get it endorsed for a country of his choice and there was nothing wrong in Chanan Singh taking the passport for getting it endorsed. The learned Judge was of the view that Mehar Singh did not make any report to the police as he might have got into trouble for giving the passport to a private person) namely Chanan Singh. The learned Judge was of the view that Mehar Singh did not make any report to the police as he might have got into trouble for giving the passport to a private person) namely Chanan Singh. Moreover, this witness has not been cross-examined on any of the points on which criticism had been offered. In my opinion, nothing has been brought out in the evidence of Mehar- Singh who was a cultivator of village Nagra as to why he should have come forward and perjured himself involving Chanan Singh falsely. The original passport (Exhibit P. 9) is proved to have been issued to him and no reason has been suggested why he should have involved Chanan Singh and not the leal culprit who might have taken it away from him on come pretext or the other, as has been suggested by the learned coursel for the dfence. If there were any other travel agencies which were indulging in similar crimes it is difficult to understand why Mehar Singh should not have named the particular agency which might have deprived him of the passport on one excuse orthe other. This argument, therefore, of Mr. Chari owing to complete absence of any challenge in cross-examination to the facts stated by Mehar Singh cannot be acceded to. Chanan Singh (F. W. 42), a cultivator of village Chak Singha, gave evidence that he obtained the passport (Exhibit P. 2) from Rakha Siagh and passed it onto Chanan Singh. Rakha Singh (P. W. 40), the holder of the passport (Exhibit P. 2', was produced to corroborate the version of Chanan Singh P. W. but it may be mentioned that owing to the contradicitions in their statements the learned trial Judge did not relyo. i their evidence nor has the same been relied upon before roe by the prosecution. The following further facts and circumstances have been relied upon on behalf of the prosecution against Chanan Singh :- (1) It has been proved that he was at Cochin from 8th October, 1959 to 14th October, 1959 and he had made payment of a sum of Rs. 1,02,500. 00 in cash in respect of the untire passage money (the total passage money being about -Rs. l,58,000. 00) of 199 passengers whose passages had deen booked through the International Travels to Mr. Hyde on various dates. 1,02,500. 00 in cash in respect of the untire passage money (the total passage money being about -Rs. l,58,000. 00) of 199 passengers whose passages had deen booked through the International Travels to Mr. Hyde on various dates. (2) A. N. Gautam and Chanan Singh banded over all the travel documents on 14th October, 1959 according to the evidence of Mr. Hyde. (3) It was proved by Manifest photostat. copy (Exhibit P. W. 148/2) that Chanan Singh flew back from Cochin on 15th October, 1959 along with his co-conspirators Darshan Singh, Harbha]an Singh and A. N. Gautam. (4) It has been proved by the evidence of Mr. R. 0. Keeffee P. W. 148; that an Air Consignment Note (Exhibit P. W. 103/3) was despatched by the International Travels on 11th October, 1959 from New Deihi. it was said to have contained travel documents and it, was delivered to Chanan Singh who was also known as C. S. Atwal. his address being c/o Messrs Harrisons and Crossfield, Limited, Cochin. The entry relating to the delivery of this consignment on 12th October, 1959 to C. S. Atwal had been proved. (5) According to the evidence of Mr. Hyde, Chanan Singh even suggested that in view of the number of passengers booked by the International Travels he would fly to Naples to meet the ship there. Mr. Hyde offered to' advise his principals about his proposed arrival and sent a. ,phonogram to Laurolines Genoa. This was corroborated by the copy of letter (Exhibit P. 103/d-1) which was written on behalf of the International Travels to Messrs Speedways International, Calcutta requesting them to book a ticket for Chanan Singh on B. 0. A. C. New Delhi. Messrs Speedways sent a reply (Exhibit P. W 103/d-2) confirming the advice of the passage ticket on B. 0. A. C. New Delhi as desired. These letters were proved by Madan Lal Public Witness. at the instance of Sardul Singh. (6) The ink writing encircled and marked P/9 on the passengers' list (Exhibit P. W. 82/14) had been made by Chanan Singh. ( 28 ). According to Mr. Chari, each one of the above facts even if established neither individually nor collectively proved his complicity in the conspiracy. at the instance of Sardul Singh. (6) The ink writing encircled and marked P/9 on the passengers' list (Exhibit P. W. 82/14) had been made by Chanan Singh. ( 28 ). According to Mr. Chari, each one of the above facts even if established neither individually nor collectively proved his complicity in the conspiracy. It is urged that such conduct and the series of facts attributed to Chanan Singh would be perfectly consistent with what he was normally expected to do as one of the active Directors of the International Travels. On the other hand, it is maintained on behalf of the prosecution that the entire material which has been discussed above together with the deliberate denial of Chanan Singh in his statement under section 342, Criminal Procedure Code, even if proved and established facts fully establishes the offences of which he has been convicted. The decision with regard to him will also be given later as he together with Gautam and Sardui Singh formed a distinct group being actively as sociated with the International Travels. ( 29 ) SARDUI Singh, who admittedly was the Manager of the International Travels, according to the statement of Chaman Lal was introduced to him in the month of September/october, 1959 when he accompanied Darshan 'singh to West Patel Nagar house where Ram Nath, Chanan Singh and Gautam were also present. There Chaman Lal made entries in about 8 to 10 passports mostly on the dictation of Chanan Singh. He ' further stated that Sardui Singh used to fill up the visa forms and take them to the Embassy. I have already discussed the evidence of Charan Das (P. W. 53), the owner of the West Patel Nagar flat, according to which Sardul Singh had rented out the newly constructed portion on the first floor from him on 11th September, 1959 at Rs. 90. 00 per mensem. Charan Das deposed that Gautam used to visit Sardul Singh while he was in occupation of that accommodation. As regards the association with the other appellants, Charan Das stated that Darshan Singh was present both on the occasion when the house was let out to Sardul Singh and when it was finally vacated by him. Chanan Singh would come and even stayed in the house in the absence of Sardul Singh. As regards the association with the other appellants, Charan Das stated that Darshan Singh was present both on the occasion when the house was let out to Sardul Singh and when it was finally vacated by him. Chanan Singh would come and even stayed in the house in the absence of Sardul Singh. The statement of Chaman Lal stands corroborated by the evidence of Charan Das in the matter of there being an accommodation in West Patel Nagar where Chanan Singh, A N. Gautam and Darshan Singh used to come. ( 30 ) RELIANCE has next been placed on behalf of the prosecution on at least 18 visa applications, the body writings of whichare stated to b; in the hand of Sardul Singh. lt must be remembared that it has been proved that it was Sardul Singh who took all the visa applications relating to the passengers, with the exception of one which was presented by him to the French Embassy, to the French and the Italian Embassiss for obtaining visas. The French visas were actually delivered to him on 9th October, 1959 and the Italian visas were delivered on 13th October, 1959. The body writings in 18 visa applications are stated to be in the hand of Sardul Singh. According to the evidence of the expsrt P. W. 149 Shri N. Das Gupta, Government Examiner of Questioned Documents, the writings on these applications tallied with the specimen writings of Sardul Singh. It may be mentioned that the specimen writings were taken of the same words which were to be found in the visa applications and, therefore, it became easier to make the comparison than in case of A. N. Gautam which has been discussed earlier. It was further found by the expert of the Finger Print Bureau, Phillaur, S. Parduman Singh, who appeared as Public Witness. 144, that Ram Nath one of the associates of the travel agents has forged the thumb-impressions of the alleged applicants on the applications (Exhibits PW. 23/c. P. W. 20/m, P. W. 23/d, Public Witness. 23/f to Public Witness. 23/h and Public Witness. 23/j) by affixing his own thumb-impressions except in the case of certain applications more over, as regards the other applications with the exception of some of the thumb impressions or signatures of the applicants appearing on them did not tally with the spscimen thumb-impressions or signatures of any of the passengers. 23/f to Public Witness. 23/h and Public Witness. 23/j) by affixing his own thumb-impressions except in the case of certain applications more over, as regards the other applications with the exception of some of the thumb impressions or signatures of the applicants appearing on them did not tally with the spscimen thumb-impressions or signatures of any of the passengers. Only the visa applications (Exhibits Public Witness. 20/c and Public Witness. 23/m) on the basis of which French and Italian visas were obtained on the passport (Exhibit P. 14) were found to bs genuine. The expert who gave a and clear cogent evidence was not questioned in cross-examination at alt by any one of the appellants including Sardul Singh. As regards the Finger Print Bureau expert also who deposed to the thumb-impressions being of Ram Nath on certain visa applications mentioned before, the body writings of which were in the hand of Sardul Singh, there was no serious challenge to that evidence either. In A. E. G. Carapiet v. A. Y- Derderian, it has been observed that wherever the opponent has daclined to avail himself of the opportunity to put his essential and material case in cross-examination, it must follow that he believed that the testimony given could not be disputed at all and that this is not merely a technical rule of evidence but it is a rule of essential justice. Reliace was placed inter alia on a decision of the House of Lords in Browne v. Dunn. The prosecution therefore, would be justified in saying that since the evidence of the experts produced went unchallenged, it s not open to the learned counsel for the appellants now to subject it to any criticism. According to Mobarik Ali Ahmed v. The Stale, of Bombay the proof about genuineness of a document may consist of direct evidence of aperson who saw the docunment being written or the Jig- nature being affixed. It may be proof of the handwriting of the contents or of the signature, by one of the modes provided in sections 45 and 47 of the Evidence Act. It may also be proved by internal evidence dence afforded by the contents of the document. It may be proof of the handwriting of the contents or of the signature, by one of the modes provided in sections 45 and 47 of the Evidence Act. It may also be proved by internal evidence dence afforded by the contents of the document. In Ram Chandra v. State of Uttar Pradesh, it was laid down that normally it would n')t be safe to treat expert evidence as to handwriting as sufficient basis for conviction but the authorship of the disputed document could be proved by considering also various items of external and internal evidence in addition to the opinion of the export. According to the decision in Golam Rahman v. The King, though the evidence of a handwriting expert is frequently found to be faulty, the evidence of a thumb-impression expert is more reliable because with regard to finger-prints it has never been found that two finger-prints are identical in all respects. ( 31 ) THE learned counsel for the appellants have legitimately urged that the body writings in the visa applications in question should not be held to be in the hand of Sardul Singh merely on the evidence of the expert but I am satified from certain other facts and circumstances that the said body writings are in the hand of Sardul Singh. Firstly, the visa applications were admittedly taken to the Embassy by Sardul Singh himself. It is difficult to believe, as suggested on his behalf by counsel, that the visa applications were Just brought to Sardul Singh after they had been got filled in by the various passengers by some outsider. A careful visual comparison with the magnifying glass leaves no room for doubt 'that all these writings on the 18 visa applications are in the hand or the same person. It is highly doubtful if the passengers who belonged to different villages etc. from Punjab would come to Delhi and get the visa applications filled up by someone who was not connected with the International Travels. Considering normal course of conduct these passengers would certainly come first to the International Travels, through whom the passeges were booked and being mostly illiterate would seek, the advice of its representative on the spot as to how the visas could be obtained. Considering normal course of conduct these passengers would certainly come first to the International Travels, through whom the passeges were booked and being mostly illiterate would seek, the advice of its representative on the spot as to how the visas could be obtained. In fact, that advice was bound to be given to them by some one in the office of the International Travels and if Sardul Singh used to do the work of obtaining the visas then the only natural thing to do would be that Sardual Singh would deal with those applications and he would know what is to be filled in them. The greater probability would, therefore, be that he would offer to fill in those applications and not ask the applicants to go to some outside agency. At any rate, it was open to Sardual Singh to explain in what circumstances the visa applications were brought to him and whether they contained the disputed writengs or not when they were brought to him. In answer to question 186, his answer was altogether inconclusive with regard to the disputed body writings. He stated- "the body writings marked Exhibits P. 59 * * * * may be mine or may not be mine. I cannot say. "in answer to question 187 he stated that the travel agents were expected to give assistance in filling up the applications and getting the visas endorsed on the passports. Sometimes the International Travels received passports, the copies of the photographs of the intendingpassengers and blank applications purporting to bear the signatures or thumb-impressions of the passengers. These applications were duly filled up from the particulars given in the passports and the visas were got endorsed in the passports and all the travel documents were then returned to the Branch concerned It is, therefore, clear that he did not firmly deny having made these body writings. The other additional fact is that some of them are proved to bear thumb-impressions which have been found by the expert to bs those of Ram Nath. Ram Nath was one of the active conspirtors according to the statement of Chaman Lal approver and used to take a prominent' part in the matter of getting forged entries made in the passports. Ram Nath was one of the active conspirtors according to the statement of Chaman Lal approver and used to take a prominent' part in the matter of getting forged entries made in the passports. Thus there appears to be no manner of doubt that the body writings in the 18 visa applications were in the hand of Sardul Singh and that he. took them along with other visa applications arid obtained visas from tha respective French and Italian Embassies. The learned trial Judge has also considered in paragraph 244 the evidence of the experts and he cams to the same conclusion that the visa applications had been proved to have been filled in by Sardul Singh. ( 32 ) ACCORDING to the contention of M'. K. L. Arora, the statement of Chaman Lal that Sardul Singh used to fill in the visa applications stands corroborated by the fact that at least 18 visa applications have bsen found to have been filled in by him. Mr. Anthony refused this argument by pointing out that Chaman Lal never stated that the 18 Vise. applications were filled in by Sardul Singh in his presence. Even if that be so, the fact that 18 visa applications are found in the writing of Sardual Singh corroborates the statement of Chaman Lal as to one of the duties assigned to Sardul Singh as a co-conspirator being of filling up the v'sa forms and taking them to the Embassies. ( 33 ) IN paragraph 199 the learned trial Judge has discussed the piece of evidence (Exnibit P. W. 82/14) which was a list giving the names of 120 passengers who were alleged to have been booked to sail on the ship M. V. Roma. According to the prosection Karnel Singh accused No. 20 travelled in the assumed name of Kartara, Dalbir Singh accused No. 21 travelled in the assumed name of Piara, Mohinder Singh accused No. 22 travelled in the assumed name of Sohan etc. and according to the evidence of Madan Lal (P. W. 103) the names which were typed in the serial order has been grouped in red and blue pencil by Sardul Singh. According to the learned trial Judge, this list was important for the purpose of determining as to whether the International Travels had booked the passage in the name of genuine passengers or in fictitious names. According to the learned trial Judge, this list was important for the purpose of determining as to whether the International Travels had booked the passage in the name of genuine passengers or in fictitious names. In particular, mention may be made of the name of Gurbachan Singh which is typed against serial No. 62 in that list. That name was scored out with ink and the word "buja" was written over it. It is now established that Gurbachan Singhwho was accused No. 31 had travelled on the basis of the passport (Exhibit P. 18) in the assumed name of Buja Singh. Similarly the name of Chanan Singh had beer. typed against serial No. 66 but after cutting out his name with pencil the name of Achhar Singh was written. Kartar Singh accused No. 35 had travelled on the basis of the passport (Exhibit P. 19) in the assumed name of Achhar Singh. All other similar matters are mentioned at length in paragraph 204 of the judgment. It was urged in the Court below as it has been urged before me that it is likely that all these mstekes were made owing to the information supplied by the passenger initially and the necessary corrections were later on made in accordance with the names appearing in the passports in a bona fide manner and that I he corrections and changes which appear in the list could not be used for the purpose of imputing any criminal intention or knowledge on the part of Sardul Singh but ths trial Judge was particularly influenced by Sardul Singh not having explained the correct position and having totally denied that this list was sent by the International Travels or that any corrections were made at his isntance or at the instance of A. N. Gautam. It was established from the evidence of the handwriting expert that the signatures of Sardu] Singh marked P. 2 on the covering letter (Exhibit P. W. 82/13) tallied with the specimen signatures. Sardul Singh in his statement under section 342, Criminal Proceduce Code, admitted his signatures on this letter and he further admitted that a list had been sent along with this letter but he denied that the list (Exhibit P. W. 82/14) as shown to him was the same list. The learned Judge found no reason to doubt the evidence of Mr. The learned Judge found no reason to doubt the evidence of Mr. Hyde that the list (Exhibit P. W. 82/14) had been received along with the letter Exhibit P. W. 82/13 ). ( 34 ) MR. Anthony, as has already been mentioned at an earlier stage, assailed the evidence of Mr. Hyde by characterising it as interested and motivated by an anxiety to save his own implication or connection in or with the conspiracy. I have, however, not been persuaded to agree with Mr. Anthony that Mr. Hyde had perjured himself with regard to the receipt of the list (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/14) which is corroborated by the statement of Madan Lal typist in the office of the International Travels. ( 35 ) THE other circumstances on which reliance has been placed by the prosecution against Sardul Singh is taking of the house in West Patel Nagar which is stated to be the local of the main activities of the conspirators in the matter of forgeries in respect of the passports. It is pointed out that admittedly the salary of Sardul Singh was about Rs. 170. 00per mensem and he did not have the means to take a house at a monthly rent of Rs. 90. 00 which showed that he was being financed by the International Travels. In my opinion this matter is hardly of much consequence and the real case which the prosecution has built up against Sardul Singh consists of the other evidence as also the statement of Chaman Lal to the extent which has been corroborated together with the proved fact that he had actually rented the accommodation in West Patel Nagar ( 36 ) AS regards Kapil Dev and Rup Lal, it has been pointed out by learned counsel appearing for them that there is hardly any evidence against them on which their conviction could be based. Although Chaman Lal implicates them but that is only with regard to the period 1956- 1957. Chaman Lal admitted that after November 1957 he did no make any entries in the passports at the instance of Kapil Dev and Rup Lal. Even if it be established that they were living in the same building as Chaman Lal, it is said that they had nothing to do with the material period during which the forgeries in the passports and in ether travel documents are stated to have been committed. Even if it be established that they were living in the same building as Chaman Lal, it is said that they had nothing to do with the material period during which the forgeries in the passports and in ether travel documents are stated to have been committed. According to the prosecution, the period during which the forgenes in the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20) were made by Chaman Lal was September/october 1959. It was for this very reason that in paragraph 601 the learned trial Judge said that it was not possible to convict Rup Lal for the abetment of forgeries in the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20) and he was acquitted of the charge under section 466 read with section 109, Indian Penal Code. Kapil Dev was similarly acquitted of that charge. It is a little unfortunate that towards the concluding part of his judgment the learned Judge proceeded to convict them under section 466, read with section 100, and imposed a sentence of three months' rigorous imprisonment each on them. Apparently this was an accidental but apparent mistake and the conviction of these-two appellants under section 466, read with section 109, Indian Penal Code, cannot stand. I am not even satisfied that their conviction on the other charge of conspiracy can be sustainfd. Kapil Dev is shown to have had no association with the International Travels. Rup Lal was one of the promoters of the Inter nati-inal Travels but he was not re-elected on 11th February, 1958 which was long before the period during which the offences for which the trial has been held were committed except the initial mooting of the conspiracy but there is no corroboration of the approver in respect of the period 1956-1957 except to the extent that they were residing in the same building as Chaman Lal. Mr. Arora has not been able to show how corroboration of this kind would justify conviction on a charge under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471, Indian Penal Code. There is hardly any overt act by which the connection of these appellants can be said to have been established with the conspiracy It is pointed out by Mr. Arora that on 11th September, 1959 Rup Lal. made a deposit of Rs. 3,500. There is hardly any overt act by which the connection of these appellants can be said to have been established with the conspiracy It is pointed out by Mr. Arora that on 11th September, 1959 Rup Lal. made a deposit of Rs. 3,500. 00 in the International Travels and that Madan Lal P. W. said that Rup Lal used to come to the International Travels in September 1959 although he could not say in what capacity and -for what purpose. That fact would hardly tend to connect him with the crime. ( 37 ) AS regards Kapil Dev, the learned Judge was primarily influenced by the omission on his part to explain the circumstances appearing against him particularly in the matter of residing in the same building where Chaman Lal was reaiding. The reasoning given by the learned Judge as is obvious from a perusal of his Judgment is nut very convincing for convicting Kapil Dev of the offence under section 120-B, read with sections 465, 466 and 471, Indian Penal Code. Both Kapil Dev and Rup Lal, therefore, are entitled to acquittal of this charge as well. ( 38 ) MR. B. K. Agnihotri for Darshan Singh urged that the forgeries on the passports of the signatures of the Regional Passport Officer which had been attributed to Darshan;singh had not been proved to have been made by him nor was the statement of Chanan Lal corroborated that Darshan Singh used to forge the signatures or affix thumb-impressions on the slips pasted under the photographs in the passports. Moreover, Darshan Singh has not been shown to have had any connection whatsoever with the International Travels. The approver had involved him in the activities in the houses in Western Area. Yusaf Sarai and the West Patel Nagar. As regards the house in Western Extension Area, there was the evidence of Sushil Chander and Anil Kumar Public Witness s. according to whom one day there was some sort of a row when the outer door of Chaman Lal's room was closed from inside but the light was on and he did not open it when asked to do so. This was in the evening on a day in July or August 1959. According to Sushil Chander (P. W. 32) when the door was opened by Chaman Lal he saw a Sikh gentleman whose name was stated to be Darshan Singh. This was in the evening on a day in July or August 1959. According to Sushil Chander (P. W. 32) when the door was opened by Chaman Lal he saw a Sikh gentleman whose name was stated to be Darshan Singh. That Sikh gentleman continued sitting in the room and left after some tima. He stated that he could identify Darshan Singh and he identified him. There is a note made by the Court that there ware only two Sikh gentlemen in the Court room when Darshan Singh was identified by this witness. It was admitted by this witness in cross-examination by Mr. B. K. Agnihotri that he had seen Darshan Singh for the first time on that day and the latter was not known to him previously nor could be remember if he saw him again. Ha denied having made the following statement to the pplice- "it is not correct that after a few days I saw the same Sikh gentleman with Shri Chaman Lal and on my enquiry from him later he told me that his name was Darshan Singh. I did not make a statement to this effect to +hs police". He was confronted with the aforesaid statement recorded in poition A to A in Exhibit Public Witness. 31/da but he denied having made it. This witness according to M:. Agnihotri, hardly gives any evidence worth the name by which Da.-shan Singh can be involved. Anil Kumar (P. W. 22) who is the son of a cousin of Chaman Lal gave evidence with regard to the incident which took place on the evening of some day in July/august 1959 bat all that he stated was that he saw a Sikh gentleman sitting inside and Chaman Lal came out of his room after leaving the door a little ajar. He stated that it was not possible for him to identify that Sikh gentleman. His evidence, therefore, is of no avail to the prosscution. Tinre was no independent eivdence about Darshan Singh having accompanied Chaman Lal to Yusaf Sarai but aa regards the West Patel Nagar house, Charan Das (P. W 55) did say that Darshan Singh was present in the company of Sardul Singh when the housa was taken on rent from him and when it was vaoated. Tinre was no independent eivdence about Darshan Singh having accompanied Chaman Lal to Yusaf Sarai but aa regards the West Patel Nagar house, Charan Das (P. W 55) did say that Darshan Singh was present in the company of Sardul Singh when the housa was taken on rent from him and when it was vaoated. ( 39 ) NOW, according to chaman Lal it was in the month of September/ October 1959 that he accompanied Darshan Singh to West Patel Nagar where he met Ram Nath, Chanan Singh and Gautam as also Sardul Singh and where he made entries in about 8 to 10 passports mostly on the dictation of Chanan Singh. The statement of Charan Das (P. W. 53} was to the effect that to his knowledge Darshan Singh visited the house twice only once when the house was let out to Sardul Singh and again when the final adjustment of the rent was made. Thus there is corroboration of the evidence of Chaman Lal that Darshan Singh went to the house in West Patel Nagar but there is no corroboration that he went at a time when Chaman Lal was also present. As has been stated before, according to Chaman Lal Darshan Singh took him there in the first instance. This could not be when Sardul Singh went to take the house on rent nor has Charan Das stated so. The learned trial Judge relied on the evidence relating to the association of Darshan Singh with the other travel agents even at Cochin. But there is a good deal of force in the argument, of Mr. B. K. Agnihotri that that association would not by itself indicate complicity in the offences which have been committed. Darshan Singh admittedly was neither apaid employee nor an office holder of the International Travels and it seems very doubtful to me that the evidence which has been led against him particularly the absence of any overt act is sufficient to sustain his conviction although there may be a good deal of suspicion that he was an active member of the conspiracy but suspicion cannot take the place of proof and he would be entitled to the benefit of doubt. ( 40 ) COMING to the case of Harbhajan Singh he is not in any way employed or connected with the organisation of the International Travels. ( 40 ) COMING to the case of Harbhajan Singh he is not in any way employed or connected with the organisation of the International Travels. According to the statement of Chaman Lal, he was introduced to Harbhajan Singh at the same time when he was introduced to A. N. Gautam at the house in the western Extension Area where he was living. Harbhajan Singh was infroduced as a co-worker. Before the committing Court it was not stated by Chaman Lal that he had been introduced as a co-worker nor has Chaman Lal stated that Haibhajan Singh got any forged entries made in the passports. The real evidence against Harbhajan Singh on which the prosecution has relied consists of ihe statement of Pritam Singh (P. W. l19 ). According to this witness, his biother Sohan Singh wanted to go to United Kingdom. Harbhajan Singh who worked as a passport agent was approached on the introduction of Darshan, an uncle of the witness. Harbhajan Singh said that he would charge a sum of Rs. 7,000. 00. The two brothers, namely, the witness Pritam Singh and Sohan Singh, went to bungalow No. L/288 in Model Town, Julluindur where Harbhajan Singh resided arid paid a sum of Rs. 3,000. 00. Later on he and his brother again went to him and paid a sum of Rs. 3,500. 00. An amount of Rs 300. 00 was to be paid later when the passport had been arranged for. According to Pritam Singh, all this money had been raised by mortgaging his and his brother's land with Lakha Singh and others. Certain mortgage and sale deeds v/ere duly produced by him and were admitted into evidence. These are as follows:- (1) Mortgage deed (Exhibit P. W. 12/2.) (2) Sale deed (Exhibit Public Witness. 92/1) dated 19th September 1953 for Rs. 1,000. 00. (3) Sale deed dated 19th September 1958 for Rs. 2,500. 00. (4) Mortgage deed dated 14th October 1958 for Rs. 1. 2-29. 00. A bullock was also sold for a sum of Rs. 500. 00. The witness proceeded to say that two years later Sohan Singh did go to United Kingdom but he returned to the village after having been arrested. In cross-examination Pritam Singh P. W. admitted that after six or seven' months of giving the money to Harbhajan Singh he also got a passport through one Balwant Singh of village Dhalleki. 500. 00. The witness proceeded to say that two years later Sohan Singh did go to United Kingdom but he returned to the village after having been arrested. In cross-examination Pritam Singh P. W. admitted that after six or seven' months of giving the money to Harbhajan Singh he also got a passport through one Balwant Singh of village Dhalleki. That passport was for going to United Kingdom, He paid Balwant Singh a sum of Rs. 500. 00 for getting the he passport and the remaining sum of Rs. 3,500. 00 was to be paid later after had reached United Kingdom. He admitted that he had been arrested on the Ferozepore Border apparently because the passport which he obtained from Balwant Singh was a forged one. He gave out his name as Dilbagh Singh at that time. He was fined twice in those cases. ( 41 ) MR. Anand for Harbhajan Singh has subjected the evidence of Pritam Singh to serions criticism. He says that the entire character of this witness is such that no reliance could be placed on him and that he was more or less an accomplice inasmuch as he joined in obtaining a spurious passport for his brother. Moreover, it was difficult to believe that he would agree to pay a sum of Rs. 6,700. 00 to Harbhajan Singh while he arranged to get a similar passport from Balwant Singh by payment of Rs. 500. 00 only and by agreeing to pay him the balance amount of Rs. 3,500. 00 from United Kingdom. ' The evidence of this witness has to be necessarily scrutinised with care. The prosecution, how ver has placed strong reliance on the fact that a substantive amount of money was raised by alienating the lands of Sohan Singh and Pritam Singh and that furnished corroboiation of his statement. It is somewhat difficult to believe in the absence of any definite suggestion on that point that this money had been "raised and expended on any purpose other than the one mentioned by Pritam Singh. As regards the obtaining of the passport from Balwant,singh, that according to the witness was done six or seven months after the money had been given to Harbhajan Singh. As regards the obtaining of the passport from Balwant,singh, that according to the witness was done six or seven months after the money had been given to Harbhajan Singh. There would hardly be any validity in the criticism that if a passport could be obtained from Balwant Singh on such easy terms as had been mentioned there could be no occasion for asking Harbhajan Singh to obtain a passport afterparting with such a large amount of money as Rs. 6,700. 00. It does not appear to have been brought out in cross-examination whether Balwant Singh was known to this witness before he met Harbhajan Singh and paid the money to him for obtaining the passport in question. Moreover, it must be remembered that these illiterate people were very anxious to go to United Kingdom in search of Jobs which fetched much larger remuneration than hare and they were, therefore, prepared to spend large amounts for obtaining passports, which in the ordinary couree would not have been granted to them. I am not unmindful of the contradictions which were brought out in the statement of this witness by the prosecution, one of which is noteworthy. In the statement before the police he had stated that the sum of Rs. 6,700. 00 had been paid in lump sum toHarbhajan Singh at one time. In Court, however, the statement wag different as has been mentioned earlier. I am of the view that for the reasons already stated his evidence about having entrusted Harbhajan Singh with the task of getting a passport for his brother must be accepted as correct. The other evidence consists of the visits of this witness to Cochin to look after the Punjabi passengers awaiting embarkation there. As has been mentioned by the learned trial Judge in paragraph 606 it is proved by the passengers Manifest photo stat copy of which is Exhibit P. W. 148/3 that Harbha]'an Singh who was described as Mr. H. Singh flw to Cochin from Madras on 8th October, 1959. P. W. 159 C. J. Anthony, proprietor of Airlines Hotel, Ernakulam, identified Harbhajan Singh and stated that he stayed in his hotel from 8th October, 1959 to 10th October, 1959 and an entry was proved from the visitors register also to that effect. H. Singh flw to Cochin from Madras on 8th October, 1959. P. W. 159 C. J. Anthony, proprietor of Airlines Hotel, Ernakulam, identified Harbhajan Singh and stated that he stayed in his hotel from 8th October, 1959 to 10th October, 1959 and an entry was proved from the visitors register also to that effect. The entry except the date was in the hand of Harbha]'an Singh and the Delhi address given by him was 15-A/26, which was the address of the house in Western Extension Area, Karol Bagh, where Chaman Lal used to reside. The trial Judge believed the evidence of Mr. Anthony that the writing in the register was of Harbajhan Singh and relied further on a letter (Exhibit P. W. 159/3) which was addressed to Harbha]'an Singh and which had been received in the Airlines Hotel after he had left. This letter was addressed to Mr. H. S. Singhera. In the charge sheet the surname of Harbhajan Singh was mentioned as Singehera. Mr. Anthony further deposed that Harbhajan Singh was very frondlly with some of the Punjabi passengers who were staying in his hotel Harbhajan Singh flew back from Cochin on 15th October, 1959 i. e. immediately after the ship R. V. Roma sailed along with Gautam, Chanan Singh and Darshan Singh as was shown in the Passengers Manifest photostat copy of which was P. W. 148/2. Although his name was given as H. Singh in some of the documents but the learned trial Judge gave no reason for saying that H. Singh and H. S. Singhera where the names by which Harbhajan Singh had been addressed in these letters or described in the entry. The other significant matter on which the learned trial Judge has relied with regard to practically all the other appellants also is that none of them gave any explanation in the statement under section 342, Criminal Procedure Code, about such matters as stood proved, Harbhajan Singh was questioned about the evidence relating to his visit and stay at Cochin but he denied everything. As regards Pritam Singh, Harbhajan Singh stated that he had got him arrested in a passport case in which he was convicted. It was on account of this and on account of the promise of the police that it would save his brother Sohan Singh that he made a false statement. The case against him stands proved. As regards Pritam Singh, Harbhajan Singh stated that he had got him arrested in a passport case in which he was convicted. It was on account of this and on account of the promise of the police that it would save his brother Sohan Singh that he made a false statement. The case against him stands proved. ( 42 ) THE case against Gautam, Chanan Singh and Sardul Singh stands proved from what has been discussed before. There were certain factors which have to be borne in mind in connection with them. It was Gautam who was originally carrying on the business of a travel agent in the name of his own firm before the Company "international Travels" came to be incorporated. Chanan Singh was its Director and Sardul Singh was the Manager throughout the material period. Owing to the nature of the work the Intetrnational Travels had to do, they would be normally expected to know all about the passports and other travel documents which are required for getting a passage booked for going to a foreign country. To say as has been said by the learned counsel on their behalf that they were totally ignorant of whatever each one of them was doing either in the office or outside the office in respect of booking of passengers would be only a vain attempt to avoid responsibility for what ultimately happened in the present case. Now, their activities for which proof has been adduced by the prosecution may be divided into three periods. The first could be when the services of Chaman Lal, the approver, were utilized by them for the purpose of making the forged entries in the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20 ). For his purpose one of the other out of them has to get hold of some old passport books in which forgeries could be made. Although the prosecution has led evidence with regard to such passport books having been obtained from a number of persons yet the only witness that has been believed is Mehar Singh (P. W. 134) according to whom Chanan Singh appellant obtained it from him on the pretext that he would get the requisite endorsements made because he had not utilized the passport which he had originally obtained for Thailand on account of his illness. At any rate, it is established that Chanan Singh obtained at least, one of the passport books (Exhibit P. 9) in which forgeries were made by Chaman Lal. As regards the forgeries in all the other travel documents namely, the Income-tax Clearance Certificates, the International Certificates of Vaccination etc. it has not been established as to who had made those forgeries but admittedly those documents on which the passengers purported to travel were not genuine but were wholly spurious. The passages were booked on these documents by one of the aforesaid three appellants and it is not easy to believe that they could not have oridinarily detected whether those travel documents were genuine or forged. ( 43 ) AT the second stage when the visas had to be obtained from the French and Italian Embassies 24 applications have b en proved to have been filled in by Gautam and Sardul Singh, six by the former and 18 by the latter. Out of the 18 applications filled in by Sardut Singh, there were thumb-impressions of Ram Nath, one of the alleged co-conspirators at the place where thumb-impressions should have been of the persons who wanted to obtain those visas. Even if it be assumed that they were wholly ignorant of the spurious nature of the entries in the passports and the other travel, documents and that they were asked by the passengers concerned to fill up the visa applications and that they filled them up in the normal course of theirwork the fact which remains v. holy unexplained and which can be fully utilized by the prosecution against these appellants is that the thumb-impressions on seven of the visa applications had been affixed by Ram Nath and not by the applicants. It would be too remote a suggestion which has been commended by the learned. counsel fur the appellants to accept that Sardul Singh was-not concerned with checking up the thum-impressions of that the applications might have been brought to him with the thumb-impressions already affixed. Taking normal course of conduct Sardul Singh would have got the thumb-impressions affixed in his presence after filling up the body of the visa applications Therefore, the fact that the thumb-impressions of a person other than the applicants were to be found on seven visa applications which had been filled in by Sardul Singh is an incliminating circumstance which cannot possibly be ignored. Then the list of passengers (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/14) which was sent along with the letter (Exhibit Public Witness. 82/13) signed by Sardul Singh -contained cuttings which have already been discussed and which support the case of the prosecution that Sardul Singh knew the real names of certain passengers which were at first entered but were altered according to the assumed names appearing in the pass passports. ( 44 ) AT the third stage Chaman bingh and Gautam are to be found on the eve of the sailing of M. V. Roma at Cochin. Ordinaily there would hardly be anything unusal in some representatives of the travel agents to be present at the port of embarkation to arrange for all the travel facilities for the passengers and to assist th in and help them in every way but what has been proved is that not only Chaman Singh who had gone earlier but also Gautam and Harbhajan Singh, apart from Darshan Singh who for lack of evidence is being acquitted all went to Cochin which reflected a certain amount to undue anxiety on their part in the matter of embarkation of the passengers. Thre is a good deal of force in the submission of Mr. Arora that these appellants went in full force because they must have felt nervous about any last minute which might appear owing to the infirmities in the travel documents. The anxiety on the part of Chanan Singh and Gautam in this behalf is further demonstrated by the proposed arrangements made for Chanan Singh to fly to Napel to meet 'm. V. Roma" there. It is altogether unheard of that arepresentative of any travel agents should go to a foreign port to render any assistance to the passengers booked through their agency. ( 45 ) THE statement of Chaman Lal fully involved Gautam, Chanan Singh and Sardul Singh and I see no reason to treat Chaman Lal as an unreliable witness. His statement has been corroborated in materiaparticulars at least during the first period or stage which was most important in the matter of the emergence of the conspiracy. As has been stated before, Chaman Lal was an impecunious person and he naturally agreed to make forgfries. His statement about his residence in the building in Western Extension Area, Karol Bagh, has been established by independent evidence. As has been stated before, Chaman Lal was an impecunious person and he naturally agreed to make forgfries. His statement about his residence in the building in Western Extension Area, Karol Bagh, has been established by independent evidence. It has also been proved that he visited the flat in West Patel Nagar which was taken en rent by Sardul Singh. That place was visited by the aforesaid three appellants which showed close association between them at that stage. The forgeries which have been made in the passports (Exhibits P. I to P. 20) b5y Chaman Lal have been proved and corroborate his statement to that extent. The fact that visa forms used to: be generally filled in by Sardul Singh as stated by Chaman Lal has also been established by independent evidence. Throughout his lengthy cross-examination Chaman Lal was not put even a single question suggesting that he had committed those forgeries at the instance of anyone else or any other travel agents. During the second and the taird stages there was close association and co-operation between the said appellants as indeed it was expected to be because they were running the office of he International Travels. These matters have been adverted to and need not be repeated. It is significant that the appellants gave no explanation whatsoever even with regard to those facts which stood completely proved and some of which have not been contested on their behalf In such circumstances if no explanation is offered its absence would itself be an additional link which would complete the. chain even in a case of circumstantial evidence. (vide Deonandan Mishra v. The Slate of Bihar. I have no manner of doubt on a complete review of the en- lire facts and circumsrances which have been established by the prosecution that Gautam. Chanan Singh and Sardul Singh were guilty of the offecenc of which they were convicted. I find no reason for reduction of sentence nor was any mitigating circumstance shown for reduction of sentence. I would, therefore, dismiss the appeals of Gautam, Chanan Singh and Sardul Singh appellants. ( 46 ) AS regards Harbhajan Singh, the evidence against him has been fully discussed and for the particular reasons given in relation to the prosecution case against him and the other general reasons for believing the statement of Chaman Lal I am satisfied that his guilt has also been proved. ( 46 ) AS regards Harbhajan Singh, the evidence against him has been fully discussed and for the particular reasons given in relation to the prosecution case against him and the other general reasons for believing the statement of Chaman Lal I am satisfied that his guilt has also been proved. The conviction and sentence are hereby maintained and his appeal is dismissed. ( 47 ) APPELLANTS Rup Lal, Kapil Dev and Darshan Singh are entitled to benefit of doubt for the reasons previously stated. Their appeals are allowed and they are acquitted. The appellants whose appeals have been dismissed shall surrender to their bail bonds.