NABA KUMAR DAS Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A dacoity took place in the house of one Balaram Naskar of Nimerhati on the night between the 7th and 8th Nov., 1967. Eight persons including the appellant were put up for trial before the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge. Howrah, for offences of various descriptions arising out of the dacoity. The learned Judge acquitted all the 8 accused. In an appeal by the State, the High Court upheld the acquittal of 7 persons but convicted the appellant under Section 411 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for 2 years. This appeal by special leave is directed against that judgment.

(2.) The conviction recorded by the High Court rests on the discovery of a wrist watch and four 'churis'. The case of the prosecution is that the wrist watch and the churis were stolen during the course of the dacoity and that they were ultimately traced to the appellant. Having considered the evidence in regard to the discovery of these articles we are of the opinion that the High Court was not justified in interfering with the order of acquittal passed by the trial Court.

(3.) The wrist watch is of Cyma make and the evidence in regard to its identity may be accepted as true. But the evidence in regard to the circumstances in which it was discovered is open to grave doubt. It is wrong to say that the watch was seized from the appellant because it was one Dr. Harendra Nath Mondal who produced the watch handed it over to the appellant in the presence of the police and it was thereafter that the police went through the formality of seizing it from the appellant. The seizure list in regard to the watch is attested, apart from Dr. Mondal, by 3 witnesses. Ram Kumar Singh, Kali Pada Sani and Dhirendra Nath Das. None of these witnesses supported the discovery of the watch though it is not possible to accept their testimony that they only signed a blank piece of paper.