STATE OF HARYANA Vs. UTTAM ALIAS CHEAKU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Uttam alias Cheaku, the respondent herein along with three others was tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Gurgaon for alleged commission of offences under S. 395, 397 and 412 of the Indian Penal Code. By judgmentdated 21/07/1980, the learned Additional Sessions Judge held that the charge against Uttam under S. 395 Indian Penal Code was proved beyond all reasonable doubt and he was accordingly convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for four years. The other three accused were acquitted on the ground that their participation in the crime was not sufficiently proved and hence they were entitled to the benefit of doubt. The respondent carried the matter in appeal to the High court of Punjab and Haryana. The High court by its impugned judgment dated 7/01/1982 allowed the said appeal, extending the benefit of doubt to the respondent, and set aside his conviction and sentence. The State of Haryana has come up to this court with this appeal against the said order of acquittal after obtaining special leave from this court.

(2.) Briefly stated, the prosecution case is that on 24/10/1978, 0m Parkash (Public Witness 5) accompanied by his wife Jai Rani (Public Witness 6) and their daughter Neelam left Delhi in the early hours of the morning for Jaipur by car. 0m Parkash and his wife Jai Rani were in the front seat of the vehicle while their daughter was occupying the rear seat. When their car had reached about 10-12 kms. beyond Gurgaon on the Delhi Jaipur Road, another car bearing registration No. DBA 2914 came from behind and attempted to overtake their vehicle. Even though 0m Parkash had made way for the other car to pass, that car deliberately swerved to the left side and struck against the front wheel of his car, whereupon 0m Parkash stopped his car on the left side of the road in the kacha portion. In the meantime, the other car also stopped at a distance of about ten paces ahead and five persons came out of that vehicle. It is stated that two or three out of them were armed with revolvers and others with daggers, Om Parkash got out of the vehicle and asked the assailants as to why they had caused the accident. In the meantime, Jai Rani also came out of the car. One of the assailants then gave a couple of knife blows on the chest of 0m Parkash, whereupon he tried to raise an alarm. Hearing the said cry for help, some trucks which were passing along that road tried to stop but one of the assailants who was armed with a pistol, fired shots in the air and scared away those truck drivers. Thereafter one of the assailants removed the earrings, necklace and wristwatch from the person of Jai Rani and in that process one of her ear lobes was cut asunder. The wristwatch and purse of 0m Parkash were also removed by one of the culprits. Apart from that, three attach cases which were on the luggage carrier of the car were also forcibly removed and taken away by the miscreants. Before the culprits left the spot in their car with all the booty, a shot was fired by one of them which hit 0m Parkash on his forehead. After inflicting the said injury, the miscreants made good their escape.

(3.) 0M Parkash somehow managed to drive back his car to Gurgaon and there he contacted his partner Joginder Singh (Public Witness 7) to whom he narrated the whole incident, 0m Parkash was immediately taken to Civil Hospital, Gurgaon where he was medically examined and various injuries were found on his person. Jai Rani was also medically examined and the injury on her right ear lobe was declared to be grievous. The other injuries were found to be simple for which she was given first aid. The first information report was thereafter lodged with the police by 0m Parkash and Sub-Inspector Tilak Raj (Public Witness 21) carried out the investigation. He recovered empty cartridge cases (Exs. P-15 and P-16) , one wad (Ex. P-17) and one ball point pen (Ex. P-18) from the place of occurrence. During the investigation it was found that the car used by the culprits had been stolen on 23/10/1973 from the house of its owner, one S. K. Mahajan. Subsequently, on 27/10/1978, the car was found lying abandoned in the Ghaziabad factory area and it was taken into police custody.