CHANDER JHA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by his conviction under Sections 307 I.P.C. and 27 of the Arms Act, appellant has preferred this appeal. In brief, prosecution case is that on 19th October, 1998 at

(2.) ABOUT 10.30 PM a secret informer brought to the notice of Inspector Ashwani Kumar, Additional Station House Officer, Police Station Adarsh Nagar that three persons armed with arms and ammunitions would come on a blue coloured two-wheeler Azadpur Mandi from Village Bharola side. On receiving this information, Inspector Ashwani Kumar constituted a raiding party comprising of himself, Sub Inspector Rakesh Kumar, Head Constable Om Prakash, Head Constable Virender Singh, Constable Yashpal, Constable Dharampal, Constable Ram Phal, Constable Hari Kishan and Constable Vinod Kumar. Thereafter, raiding party reached Sabzi Mandi, Azadpur in a Government vehicle bearing no. DNH 5368 driven by Constable Suresh Kumar. Police party took position near a tomato shed. At about 11:15 PM three persons were seen coming on a blue coloured scooter from Village Bharola side. They were not wearing helmets. On the pointing of secret informer, Inspector Ashwani Kumar gave signal to the scooterist to stop. Scooter was stopped at about 20 meters away and thereafter all the three occupants started running towards Sarai Pipal Thala Bagh. Police party gave a chase to them. Appellant took out a revolver and fired towards Inspector Ashwani Kumar twice, however, he continued his pursuit and overpowered him. Other police officials apprehended remaining two accused, namely, Mohd. Chuttan and Jawahar Singh who were also armed with Desi Kattas. I need not to discuss about the role of co-accused since this Appeal is only on behalf of the appellant Chander Jha.

(3.) PROSECUTION has examined 14 witnesses in all. PW5 Constable Vinod, PW6 Constable Yash Pal, PW7 HC Varinder Singh, PW9 HC Om Prakash, PW12 SI Rakesh Kumar and PW13 Inspector Ashwani Kumar are members of the raiding party. PW2 HC Sewa Ram was working as Malkhana Moharrar with whom case properties were deposited by Inspector Ashwani Kumar. PW4 Head Constable Manoj Kumar had taken the pullanda containing revolver, live cartridges and fired cartridges to CFSL, Chandigarh and had deposited the same there. Mr. B. Badanaya, Senior Scientific Officer, CFSL, Chandigarh has been examined as PW14. He has proved the CFSL report, according to which two .38 bore cartridges C-1 and C-2 had been fired from the revolver in question. Learned Additional Sessions Judge has found testimonies of the aforesaid witnesses to be trustworthy and reliable and sufficient enough to conclude that it is the appellant, who had fired at the police party, thus, had committed an offence punishable under Section 307 IPC. He has further concluded that appellant was guilty of committing an offence under Section 27 Arms Act, 1959 for using the firearm.