SANTOSH Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition is filed by the petitioner/accused under Section 397 Cr.P.C. being aggrieved by the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Ron(hereinafter referred to as 'the trial Court', for brevity) in CC No.138/2010 dated 19.12.2011 and upheld by the District and Sessions Judge, Gadag (hereinafter referred to as 'the first Appellate Court', for brevity) in Criminal Appeal No.3/2012 dated 02.06.2012, for having found the petitioner guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 419 and 511 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as 'the IPC', for brevity) and convicting the accused to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one year and sentencing him to pay fine of Rs.500/-, in default of payment of fine to undergo simple imprisonment for 3 months.

(2.) Heard the arguments of learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned HCGP for the respondent-State and perused the records. The rankings of the parties before the trial Court are retained for convenience.

(3.) The case of the prosecution before the trial Court is that, the Ron Police filed the charge sheet against the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 419 and 511 of the IPC, on the complaint made by PW4, the conductor of the bus, alleging that, on 25.12.2009, he was conductor of the KSRTC bus bearing No.KA26/F-721 and the bus was driven by PW3 Hussainsab Basapur and when the bus was proceeding from Badami to Ron, near Abbigeri, one Mahadevappa Hanchinal, Andappa Mudhol, Ningappa Uppar and the accused got inside the bus and the accused have told the conductor that he is the Inspector and asked the conductor go give his ticket lending machine. When the complainant denied to give the machine, the accused started checking the tickets of the passengers and in the meanwhile, the Traffic Inspector one Inamati PW9 and one L. S Rathod PW11 stopped the bus and got inside the bus. At that time, the complainant informed them that the accused is already checking the passengers as ticket checker. PWs. 9 and 11 when asked the accused, at that time the accused told he is helping the conductor. When the same was enquired with the conductor, he denied the same. Immediately the bus was taken to the police station and complaint was lodged against the accused. FIR came to be registered in Crime No.162/2009 for the aforesaid offences. Subsequently the accused was arrested and later after the investigation charge sheet came to be filed. After taking cognizance the accused faced the trial by denying the charges. The prosecution examined 12 witnesses got marked 8 documents. The trial Court recorded the statement of the accused the incriminating evidence against him has been read over. The case of the accused was of total denial and he has not entered into any defence.