RAJU ALIAS RIYAZUDDIN Vs. STATE OF UP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since all the aforementioned criminal appeals have been filed against the judgement and order dated 20.1.2010 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge Court No. 18, Meerut in S.T. No. 933 of 2003, convicting and sentencing the appellants to life imprisonment inter alia under section 489-B IPC and fine, the prayer for bail in the aforesaid cases is being considered by this common order.

(2.) Heard Shri Aditya Prakash Mishra, S. Ashraf Ali and Vivek Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the appellants in the connected appeals and learned Additional Government Advocate. The prosecution case was that on an information from an informer, Sri Ajay Kumar Chauhan, Station Officer, police station Nauchandi, the informant, accompanied by a posse of policeman reached Nauchandi Mela where they apprehended the appellants from near the "boat swing" who were trying to engage in passing off counterfeit currency notes as genuine at about 10.45 PM on 14.5.2001. The appellants disclosed that they had been dealing with these notes a number of times and that one Baiju alias Robin Singh, who resided in Mission Compound has been providing them with the currency. The FIR of this incident was lodged by Ajay Kumar Chauhan, PW 2 on 15.5.2001 at 00.40 hours. The defence of the appellants was that they had been picked up from their houses in the night of 13/14.5.2001 and falsely implicated in this case.

(3.) It was contended by the learned counsel for the appellants that only police witnesses have come forward to support the prosecution case. No independent witness has been produced. Even the notes were not sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for confirmation that they were counterfeit currency and the investigating officer S.I. Kunwar Pal Singh, PW 4 admitted that he had not himself examined the counterfeit currency notes.