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Krishna Kumar Kedia v. Union of India

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 608Decided 30 Apr 2025
Crl.A. No. 280-280 of 2019
Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice Augustine George Masih

Background

The appellant, proprietor of a transport firm (M/s Cosmo Transport), was convicted for orchestrating the forgery of a government supply order and related documents to fraudulently lift 1,091.95 metric tonnes of Bulk Bitumen (valued over Rs. 54 lakh) meant for a state Road Construction Department, and then diverting and selling the entire consignment elsewhere instead of delivering it. An accomplice who was later granted pardon and turned approver testified that he forged the signatures of the department's Executive Engineer at the appellant's instruction, and this was corroborated by numerous departmental witnesses who confirmed the bitumen was never received at its intended destination.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction, holding that the approver's admission of forging signatures, corroborated by the genuine signatory's denial and by extensive documentary and witness evidence showing non-receipt of the goods, established guilt beyond doubt, and that the appellant's own statement effectively admitted receiving the full consignment without showing it was ever delivered as required. However, considering that the appellant was now 71 years old with serious health issues (diabetes, three heart attacks), and that the offence was over 30 years old, the Court took a lenient view on sentence, reducing the rigorous imprisonment under Sections 407 and 420 IPC from 5 years to 2 years and 6 months while keeping the sentences under Sections 465 and 471 IPC unchanged, all to run concurrently.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can and do temper sentences for extreme delay, old age, and serious ill health even while fully affirming a conviction: the passage of decades and personal circumstances can mitigate punishment, but they are not a defence to guilt once forgery and diversion of entrusted property are proved by cogent evidence.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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