SURINDER Vs. STATE OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by his conviction under Section 398 IPC vide judgment dated 27.05.2002 of the Court below, the appellant has preferred this appeal.

(2.) Briefly stated the facts of the case are that on 06.11.1988 at about 7:15 PM Mr. R.P. Kapoor and his wife Mrs. Neelam Kapoor were sitting in their house No. D-9, Kalindi Colony, New Delhi. Mother of Mr. Kapoor, his sister and one servant were also in the house. A call bell was made at the door and Mrs. Neelam Kapoor went to open the door. The moment, she opened the door, 6-7 persons, who were standing at the gate, suddenly pushed her inside the house and they were all holding revolvers and knives. They all came alongwith Neelam Kapoor to lobby and asked her and her family members to sit in the lobby and pointed out their knives and revolvers on them. They demanded keys from Mrs. Neelam Kapoor and threatened that if the keys of almirahs and safe were not handed over, they would kill her. She gave key bunch to them. At the time of entering the house, they had cut the telephone wire and closed the entrance gate and after taking keys, they started ransacking the house and collecting valuables. After about 10 minutes of her giving keys, one of the accused namely Hans Raj told her that keys were incomplete and demanded from her more keys and gave her a slap and asked her to give keys. On this, R.P. Kapoor got up and told him not to manhandle Mrs. Neelam Kapoor and when he raised his hands to protect her, one of the dacoits gave a knife blow to him and the knife hit him on left palm and he started bleeding. Mrs. Neelam Kapoor had been slapped so badly that she got scared and Mr. R.P. Kapoor, after receiving the knife injury, became silent. The dacoits kept on picking up and lifting things from inside the bed rooms and other rooms of their house. Throughout the period, when they were picking up things, one or two dacoits, kept all the house persons under the cover of fire arms and knife which they were holding and made them sit in the lobby throughout.

(3.) Dev Singh Rawat, who was servant of son of Mr. R.P. Kapoor happened to come to their house and before he could enter the house, he saw from the window the scene inside the house and he immediately rushed to the Police Post nearby and reported about armed robbers being inside the house of Mr. Kapoor. Police swung into action and police team surrounded the house of Mr. Kapoor. SHO of the area also reached there and police team after peeping from the lobby and other windows, learnt about several dacoits inside the house. One of them gave bell, one the dacoits went to open the door and when he saw police there, he cried out 'Mama aa gaye' sarcastically informing his associates about the arrival of police. When the dacoits learnt about the arrival of police, they immediately started running out of the house from different doors, after picking up whatever articles they had looted till then. While they tried to run from the spot, Police came into action and four of them apprehended at the spot. Police had also to fire shots, one of the dacoits received bullet injury and three of them were overpowered after chase and four of them succeeded in running away by scaling the back courtyard boundry wall (which must have been left by the police unguarded). Apart from the looted articles, which were recovered from them, arms i.e. revolvers and knives were also recovered. On the complaint of Mr. R.P. Kapoor, FIR was registered and the persons, who were apprehended red handed at the spot, were formally arrested by the Police. Their interrogation led to the identification and arrest of other accused persons and recovery of looted articles was also made from them. The articles which were recovered from the accused were identified by the complainant Mr. R.P. Kapoor and his wife in TIP proceedings of the articles. Other accused persons, who were arrested later on were also offered to join TIP but they refused to do so.