PARMATMA LAL Vs. STATE OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants Parmatma Lal and Dharam Pal have been convicted for offence under Sections 392/34 read with Section 397 of the Indian Penal Code. They have been sentenced to undergo seven years rigorous imprisonment each and a fine of Rs. 500/- each in default of payment of fine they have been further directed to undergo three months rigorous imprisonment.Parmatma Lal has filed Criminal Appeal No. 80/82 and Dharma Pals appeal number is 93/82. As common questions of facts and law arise therein this judgment disposes of both the appeals.

(2.) The appellants and one Raj Kumar alias Chhottey were apprehended almost red handed while they had just completed an fact of robbery by a police party headed by P.Ws. S.I. Mahipal Singh on 9th January, 1979 at Railway Station, Narela. The victims were P.W. 3 Arjun Dev and his wife. It was during the course of investigation of that case that the appellants are said to have dis. closed that they had committed similar offences in a running train on that very station about. 8-9 days prior to 9th January 1979. In fact F.I.R. No. 516 of 1978 had been registered by Police Station New Delhi Railway Station on 31st December, 1978 regarding that occurrence. As per that report 4 robbers armed with deadly weapon committed the robbery at about 2.00 a.m.in the night intervening 30-31st December. 1978. The victim who lodged the report was P.W. 2 Satish Kumar Sabharwal. According to him he had boarded the train at Railway Station Nizamuddin on his way to Narela. At New Delhi Railway Station P.W. 1 Han Kishan Gupta and 4 other persons boarded the train. Han Kishan Gupta and Satish Kumar Sabharwal occupied the upper berths while the other four sat m the adjacent compartment in that very boggie. After the train left railway station new Azadpur those four persons came to the compartment where these two passengers were lying; two of them whose names later on were found to be Raj Kumar alias Chhotey and Raj Kumar alias Rajan surrounded Han Kishan Gupta and the other two who are appellants herein. Parmatma Lal and Dharam Pal approached the berth occupied by Satish Kumar Sabharwal. In the words of P.W. 2 Satish Kumar Sabharwal the role played by each of the robbers was Accused Parmatma Lal was carrying pistol in his hand and all the three remaining accused including the one who was standing near my side were carrying knives in their hands. Accused Parmatma Lal put pistol on my body accused Dharam Pal put knife and they asked me to take out whatever I was having in my possession or on my person. Accused Parmatma Lal removed the watch from my wrist and the accused Dharam Pal took out the purse from my back pocket of the pant. The purse contained 20.22 rupees in all. The remaining two accused persons took out the money from the pocket of Han Kishan Gupta and took out the golden ring and silver ring from his person P.W. 1 Han Kishan Gupta corroborated this statement. He stated accused Raj Kumar s/o Parma Nand put the knife on my chest and asked me to get down and hand over whatever I had in my possession and he removed Rs. 4235.00 from the front inner small pocket of my pant. This amount consisted of 42 notes of Rs. 100.00 denomination and the remaining were of mixed denominations of Rs.5.00 and Rs.10.00 Accused Raj Kumar s/o Ram Sarup had also put knife on my chest and he removed one gold ring from my finger and one silver ring from the other finger. Both the rings were having stones embedded in them. The other two accused persons had, at the point of knife and pistol, removed one wrist watch from the person of Satish Sabharwal and took out Rs.20.00 or Rs.22.00 from his pocket.

(3.) On their apprehension on 9th January, 1979 certain articles including weapons were stated to have been recovered. From possession of Raj Kumar alias Chhottey one wrist watch which is stated to belong to P.W. 1 Han Kishan Gupta was recovered. From possession of the appellants, however, no articles which have any bearing in this case were recovered at that time. On the disclosure statement of the appellant Parmatma Lal his house was searched and on his pointing out a HMT watch proved to be the property of Satish Kumar Sabharwal P.W. 2 was recovered. During investigation the appellants and their co-accused Raj Kumar disclosed the names of other persons who participated in various robberies with them. Raj Kumar alias Rajan who has since been acquitted by the trial court was arrested on 10th January, 1979. On his disclosure statement one gold ring (Ex. P.1) one silver ring and one wrist watch were recovered vide memo Ex. P.W. 8/B. The watches belonging to the victims P.W. 1 Gupta and P.W. 2 Sabharwal and also the gold ring Ex. P1 were identified by the said two witnesses in test identification parade held before P.W. 4 Shri Rajesh Kumar, Metropolitan Magistrate. I may note here that Satish Kumar Sabharwals watch has been wrongly mentioned as Ex. P.3 in his deposition. The record shows that in fact that watch was Ex. P.7.