In Brief
Ram Lal, a bank peon, was convicted of misappropriating approximately Rs 38,500 from a United Commercial Bank while illegally performing clerical duties. He received deposits from customers, entered them in passbooks, but pocketed the cash and later created fake credit entries to permit fraudulent withdrawals. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC, holding that his written confessions were voluntary and admissible despite being made before senior officers. The Court held extra-judicial confessions need not be corroborated if proven voluntary. The Court partly allowed the appeal by reducing the sentence under Section 409 IPC from five years to three years, considering the passage of time.
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