STATE OF RJASTHAN Vs. AJIT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal under section 19 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act 1987 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act") has been filed against the judgment of the Designated Court dated 2nd December 2000 whereby all the accused have been acquitted for offences punishable under sections 3 (3) & 4 (1) of the Act though Ajit Singh alone has been convicted under Rule 3/6 of the Pass Port Rules 1950 and awarded a sentence of 6 months simple imprisonment. The facts leading to the appeal are as under:-

(2.) At about 10 a.m. on 12th August 1991 PW7 Hira Lal along with PW9 Sada Nand, Narender Soni, Inspector Customs and several other officers of the department were on patrol duty on the Indo Pakistan Border in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. As they reached village Avaya, a Jonga bearing No. RSS 3479 which was coming from the opposite direction was stopped by them as some suspicions had been raised. On enquiry it transpired that the vehicle driver was Shri Ram Vishnoi and the passenger was Ajit Singh @ Jeeta who disclosed that they were returning from the house of Mehardeen son of Allabachaya, a resident of village Avaya, who with the assistance of one Abdul Aziz, had on several occasions brought arms and ammunition from Pakistan for transportation to Punjab so as to further the terrorist effort towards the creation of Khalistan. Abdul Aziz aforesaid was also interrogated and he confirmed Ajit Singh's statement. Ajit Singh and Abdul Aziz were then handed over to the SHO Police Station Nachna at 9.15 a.m. on 14th August 1991 on which a formal FIR was registered. PW13 S.I. Amara Ram started the investigation which revealed that as many 17 persons along with Ajit Singh and Abdul Aziz had been involved in the smuggling activity and many of the suspects were later arrested. Seven of the accused i.e. Ajit Singh, Abdul Aziz, Noordeen, Mehardeen, Nihal, Sumar and Rasool were also produced before the Superintendent of Police, Jaisalmer, PW8 Shri Rajeev Dasot who recorded their confessions under section 15 of the Act on different dates between September 21, 1991 and February 28, 1992 and as a consequence of the information received thereby, camels and vehicles allegedly used in the smuggling were recovered. Mehardeen's statement in addition led to the recovery of a AK-56 rifle and two magazines with 44 cartridges. It appears that accused Sujia and Danu Ram were discharged by the order of the court, whereas Laldeen was declared an absconder and Noordeen died during the course of the trial. The other accused were accordingly charged under Sections 3(3) & 4(1) of the Act whereas some of the accused were charged in addition for offences punishable under the Arms Act and the Passport Act. The Designated Court examined fifteen witnesses in all. Primary, reliance was placed on the statements of Kishan Ram PW5, PW7 Hira Lal, Rajeev Basot PW8, Sada Nand PW9 and Anara Ram PW13. The prosecution evidence was then put to the accused and they denied their involvement and on the contrary alleged that the Police Officers who were investigating the matter had made demands for illegal gratification and on their refusal to meet their demands they had been involved in a false case. They also produced several witnesses in defence.

(3.) The trial court held that the confession given by Ajit Singh alias Guru Lal to Customs Officer, PW7 Hira Lal was liable to be believed as Hira Lal's evidence was corroborated by the statement of Customs Inspector PW9 Sada Nand. The trial court further observed that it would have been appropriate for the officers who had investigated the matter and recorded the confession made by Ajit Singh in which he had stated that he had been smuggling arms to Punjab so as to facilitate the creation of Khalistan but PW13 Anara Ram had admitted that he had made no enquiries to verify the correctness of this statement or to make a further investigation in that direction was a glaring circumstance in favour of the accused. The court then examined the statements of PW8 Rajeev Dasot, SP of Jaisalmer who had recorded the confessions under section 15 of the Act and observed that no infirmity had been pointed out with respect to the procedure adopted and though the Court could record a conviction on the basis of the confession it would not be safe to do so on this basis alone and that it was appropriate that the confessional statement should be corroborated by other evidence. The Court also noted that though Ajit had admitted his involvement in terrorist activities none of the other accused had made incriminating confessions. The court also observed that though the confession made by an accused could be used against a co-accused but it was clear from the confessional statements that none of the accused had admitted that they had been aware of Ajit Singh's involvement in terrorist activities and the mere fact that they had accepted that they had received payment for assisting him in smuggling arms and ammunition did not by itself indicate that they were aware of the end use of the weapons and as such the rules of prudence required evidence beyond their confessions to support the prosecution story. The court then concluded that the only evidence which was available against the accused were the recoveries of Rs.5,000/- and a camel from Abdul Aziz and camels from Mehardeen, Mohammed, Kasam, Ibrahim, Naseer, Nihal, Rasool and Kamardeen, a Jonga Jeep from Shri Ram and another Jeep from Danu Ram (since discharged) but rejected the inference of culpability holding that there was no evidence to show that the jeeps or the camels and the cash had been used in the attempt to smuggle arms and ammunition from Pakistan. The trial court accordingly acquitted all the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 3(3) and 4(1) of the Act and under the Arms Act and on the basis of the above discussion, only Ajit Singh was convicted for having violated the Passport Rules. This appeal at the instance of the State has been filed against the judgment of acquittal.