ANJINEYALU AND OTHERS Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal filed under Section 374(2) of Cr.P.C. by the accused persons in S.C. No. 259/2002 on the file of II Additional District and Sessions Judge, Bangalore Rural District, Bangalore is directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 16.11.2005 passed in the said case convicting the appellants -accused for the offence punishable under Section 489C of IPC and sentencing them to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for five (5) years and each of them to pay fine of Rs. 5,000/ - for the said offence.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution in brief is as under: On 24.4.2001 while P.W. 7 -Lokeshwara, PSI, Doddallaballapur Police Station was discharging duty as SHO, at about 3.00 p.m., he received a credible information that in the house of accused No. 1 situated near Mangala School, accused persons are dealing with fake notes. Immediately P.W. 7 secured the presence of P.Ws. 1 to 3 and 8 as independent panchas, apprised them about the credible information which he had received and requested them to act as panchas, for which all of them agreed; that thereafter P.W. 7 alongwith P.Ws. 1 to 3 and P.W. 8 and his staffs i.e. P.Ws. 5 and 6 went near the house of accused No. 1, and reached the first floor of the house, they saw accused Nos. 1 and 2 inside the house hurriedly keeping one black coloured bag in the almerah. Immediately, P.W. 7 alongwith his staff and panchas took out the bag from the almerah and on verification of the bag, it was found containing 40 notes of denotation of Rs. 500/ -. On verification, there were more than one note bearing the same serial numbers. Therefore, P.W. 7 was of the opinion that they were all fake notes. Thereafter, in the presence of panchas and other staff, P.W. 7 separately bundled the notes bearing same numbers and then put all the bundles in a white coloured bag, sealed the same with seal bearing letter 'H ™. Thereafter, P.W. 7 made search in the house to know whether there are any printing machines and other fake notes, but nothing more was found in the house. With regard to this seizure, P.W. 7 drew up a detailed mahazar as per Ex.P.1 between 4.00 to 5.00 p.m. to which the panchas and other staff subscribed their signatures. Thereafter, on return to police station, P.W. 7 prepared a suo motu report as per Ex.P.6, based on which, he registered case in Crime No. 60/2001 for the offence punishable under Section 489C of IPC and submitted FIR as per Ex.P -7 which reached the jurisdictional Magistrate at 6.30 p.m. on the same day. P.W. 10 -H.R. Radhamani, Police Inspector of C.A. Squad, COD, Bangalore took up further investigation of the case from P.W. 7 and during investigation, she recorded the statements of the witnesses, sent the seized notes to RBI for examination and report. P.W. 4 -M. Venkatapathy, Treasurer of RBI on examination of notes sent, furnished his opinion as per Ex.P.5 to the effect that all the notes sent for examination were fake and counterfeit currency notes. After completing investigation P.W. 10 laid charge sheet before the jurisdictional Magistrate.

(3.) I have heard the learned Counsel appearing for the appellants/accused and the learned High Court Government Pleader appearing for the respondent -State.