PAWAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON 12.6.2001 at about 5:05 a.m., S.I. Umesh Malik informed Police Station Badli that a rice loaded in truck bearing No. MP07G3611 had been stolen and the truck along with driver and owner had been left in the fields. The information was recorded vide DD No. 38A a copy of which was given to S.I. Rajiv Kumar for investigation. The aforesaid police officer reached the place of incident near Vishal Bagh, Narela -Bawana Road. Truck No. MP07G3611 was found parked there. The truck owner Ram Babu Sharma as well as driver Mahender Singh and Shivbeer Singh were also present there along with S.I. Umesh Malik. The statement of Shri Ram Babu Sharma was recorded by the Sub -Inspector. The complainant told him that on 10.6.2001, he along with his driver Mahender Singh and Shivbeer Singh had come to Delhi on truck No. MP07G3611 loaded with plastic dust which he had off -loaded in Mundka, Nangloi. Collecting Rs. 11,000/ - as the truck fare, they reached Majnu Ka Tila where Ravinder, owner of Delhi Gwalior Andhra Road Lines sent them to Delhi MP Freight Carrier, Gurudwara Road, Siraspur for loading the goods for Akola. From there they went to Alipur and loaded 127 bags of Bablu brand rice. Thereafter they loaded 333 bags of rice from Gali No. 17, Libaspur. Out of them 94 bags were of the brand Mahabharat whereas the remaining were of the brand Hanuman. At about 10 p.m. they reached Gurudwara Road, opposite Satyam Properties and off Siraspur Village the truck was got stopped by six (6) boys who were standing in a deserted street. Saying that they have to search the truck, the aforesaid persons entered the truck and showed country made pistol to them. One of them gave beating to the driver, removed him from the driver seat and took charge of the said seat. The other persons tied their hands and legs using string for the purpose. Their eyes were covered with cloth and they were made to sit with their face towards the rear of the truck and blanket was put on them. After driving for about 45 -60 minutes the truck was stopped and the rice was unloaded. Thereafter the truck was again started and after driving for about 15 -20 minutes, it was stopped. One of the above -referred persons took out Rs. 17,000/ - which he (the complainant) had in his pocket along with his wrist watch make Titan. They were threatened to be shot dead in case they came out of the truck. For about 30 minutes, they remained in the truck. When they did not notice any sound, they opened the strings using their mouth, released themselves and came on the road. Boarding a bus they reached police booth Narela and apprised the police officials of the incident which had taken place with them. The complainant further stated that the person who was driving the truck was aged about 20 -25 years. He had fair complexion with a height of about 5.6 feet and had no moustache. Remaining persons were aged between 20 -25 years and two (2) of them were of dark complexion with height of about 5.2 feet whereas the remaining three (3) were of fair complexion and had a height of about 5.6 -5.7 feet. An FIR under Sections 365/395/397 of IPC was registered on the basis of the aforesaid statement of the complainant. On 20.6.2001, information with respect to arrest of Mandeep, Subhash Tyagi, Jagbeer @ Raju, Charan Singh and Pawan was received. This is also the case of the prosecution that at the instance of the accused Pawan 67 bags of rice were recovered whereas 116 bags of rice were recovered at the instance of remaining four (4) accused, namely, Mandeep, Subhash Tyagi, Jagbeer and Charan Singh. The accused Anil was arrested on being pointed out by Pawan and fifteen (15) bags of rice were allegedly recovered from him. After completing investigation, initially seven (7) persons, namely Pawan, Anil, Subhash Tyagi, Jagbeer, Mandeep, Charan Singh and Renu Khatri were prosecuted. Later Joginder @ Bachchi was also arrested and chargesheeted.

(2.) THE complainant Ram Babu Sharma came in the witness box as PW6 and inter alia stated that truck bearing No. MP07G3611 was owned by him and his partner Shri Kendra Singh. He further stated that on 10.6.2001, he along with Mahender Singh and Shivbeer Singh drivers loaded plastic scrap in the truck from Gwalior and came to Delhi where the scrap was unloaded at Mudrika Village and he collected Rs. 15,000/ - for transporting the said scrap from Gwalior to Delhi. Thereafter he reached MP Transport at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar where he was instructed to load rice from Siraspur to transport the same to Bombay. The rice weighing 14.5 tonne was loaded from different godowns. The truck was weighed at a dharamkata at Siraspur. After they left Siraspur Village they were stopped by 5 -6 persons who asked them to show the papers of the material saying that they (the witnesses) were taking illegal material. Within fraction of a second all of them entered the cabin of the truck. They (the witnesses) were tied with small pieces of ropes which the boys were carrying with them. Thereafter they were blindfolded by covering them with a cloth. The driver of the truck was shifted to the backseat and one of the aforesaid boys occupied the driver seat. After driving for about 1 -1:30 hours the truck was stopped at an isolated place and the rice was unloaded. After unloading the material, the truck was again driven for about 30 -45 minutes and then left at an unknown place. Those persons also threatened to shoot them in case they made noise. He alleged that the cash amounting to Rs. 17,000/ - was taken from him besides the watch of the driver. Being afraid they did not raise any alarm for about 40 -45 minutes. Thereafter they untied themselves with the help of each other and got down from the truck. They found the truck to be empty and came on the main road. Taking a lift in a Roadways bus they reached police chowki from where police officials came with them. S.I. Rajiv then reached the spot and recorded his statement Ex.PW6/A. The witness identified the accused Subhash Tyagi, Joginder, Renu Khatri, Mandeep and Charan Singh as the persons who had boarded the truck and removed their material. He also stated that almost everyone was carrying some weapon with him. He also alleged that the accused Renu Katri was driving the truck whereas Charan Singh was the person who was carrying a fire arm with him. He also claimed that the rice was seized by the police from a number of places in his presence and one such place was a godown in Begumpur, Narela. He also alleged that some recovery was also effected from the shop of accused Anil and Pawan both of whom had kirana shop and godown at the back of the said shops. He also claimed that the brand of the rice were Bablu, which had a photo of a child, Mahabharat and Kurukshetra which had a photo of Hanuman.

(3.) PW 14 S.I. R. Srinivasan is the Investigating Officer of this case. He inter alia stated that in the night intervening 20/21.6.2001, at about 12:12:30 a.m., when they were searching the accused persons involved in this case secret information was received by him that the persons who had committed robbery of rice and gram were residing on the second floor of a house situated near Lokesh Cinema, Nangloi. He requested 2 -3 persons to join the investigation but they refused, whereupon without wasting time he reached house No. 50, which was the house of one Ramphal in Rajinder Nagar Enclave, Nangloi, along with other police officials. The house was pointed out by the informer, who thereafter left the place. When they reached the second floor of the house four (4) persons were found sitting on the floor outside the room. When they tried to apprehend those persons on the identification of the complainant, they scattered in different directions. Three (3) of them, whose names later came to be known as Subhash Tyagi, Mandeep Rana @ Tiger and Jagbeer @ Raju were apprehended whereas accused Charan Singh jumped from the second floor. He along with Constable Rajesh went downstairs and apprehended Charan Singh from there. He further stated that disclosure statement of accused persons Ex.PW5/A to Ex.PW5/D were recorded by him and thereafter the accused persons led the police party to Begumpur Road, near Kale Ki Dukaan, Rajiv Nagar, Begumpur. They opened the lock of the rented godown and 116 sacks of rice were recovered out of which ten (10) bags were Kshetra brand and ten (10) sacks were Bablu brand. Thereafter the accused led them to the shop of the accused Pawan situated at Begumpur Barwala Road, Near Shiv Mandir and Pawan was arrested from there. The disclosure statement of Pawan Ex.PW5/X was then recorded by him. He further stated that after they had taken police remand of the accused Charan Singh and Pawan Kumar, Pawan Kumar took them to Sector 20 of Rohini and on his pointing out accused Anil was apprehended from his shop -cum -residence. He recorded disclosure statement of Anil Ex.PW10/E. Anil got recovered fifteen (15) bags of Kshetra brand Basmati rice which were seized vide memo Ex.PW10/B. He also got recovered ten (10) bags of white gram which were seized vide memo Ex.PW14/D. According to the witness on 22.6.2001, accused Pawan led the police party to a room constructed in an agricultural field situated at Barwala -Karala Road and got recovered 67 bags of rice on which picture of God Hanuman in green colour was printed. The aforesaid bags of rice were seized vide memo Ex.PW5/Y. The witness also identified the photographs of the case property which he had seized during the course of investigation.