JAI PAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Jai Pal Singh, solitary accused was convicted by Session's Judge, Ghaziabad in S.T. No. 183 of 1978, State Vs. Shahid and others, P.S. Bahadurgarh, district Ghaziabad for offence u/s 396 I.P.C. and was implanted sentence of 9 years RI, while two other accused were acquitted of the said charge, and hence he has come up to this court, in this appeal challenging his aforesaid conviction and sentence.

(2.) A resume of back ground facts, stated concisely, shows that on the intervening night between 9/10th September 1977, at 1A.M., nine or ten dacoits trespassed into Dharam Singh's(informant, PW1) house from the front door and pounced the informant on the same cot on which he was sleeping, in his verandah, along with his DBBL Gun No. 2492. When informant tried to pick up his gun, it was snatched away by the dacoits. At that time Saraswati, informant's wife, his son Suresh, daughter Sureshbani, and small children were sleeping in southern verandah. Four of the dacoits were armed with country made pistols while rest of them were armed with spear and lathi. Informant raised hue and cry, which woke up his wife Smt. Saraswati (deceased), who also raised hue and cry. On the said commotion and hearing the shrieks, other house inmates and co-villagers Har Pal Singh, Som Singh, Jodha, Mangad Singh, Mool Chand, Bani Singh, Jai Ram and Mooda woke up. Saraswati recognized co villagers Shahid and Aziz amongst the dacoits and therefore accosted them as to why they were looting them, on which Shahid shot her dead. Co-villager Mooda attempted to apprehend one of the dacoits on which he was also shot at. Rest of the witnesses had seen the incident and had spotted the dacoits in the lights of flashed torches and electric bulb, which was hanging on a nearby pole affixed at the adjacent house of Jodha. Dacoits, after committing dacoity, retreated from the incident place. Besides aforesaid DBBL gun made in France, a gold plated collar ring (Hasali), a golden collar, gold bangles (Kangan), two pairs of silver anklets (Pajeb) along with other ornaments and cash amount of Rs. 5,000/- and twenty five saries were looted.

(3.) Dharam Singh, PW1 got a written report, Ext. Ka 1,about the incident, scribed through Vatan Singh, covered a distance of 4 kms and lodged it at P.S. Bahadurgarh the same morning at 3.30 A.M. against two named accused Aziz and Shahid with seven or eight unnamed dacoits. HM Nawal Kishore Sharma P.W.3, registered the written report, prepared chik FIR Ext. Ka-2 and relevant GD entry Ext. Ka-3. Investigation into the crime was commenced by S.O. R.D. Gaur P.W. 8 who, after registration of the crime, recorded 161 Cr.P.C. statement of the informant, conducted inquest on the cadaver of the deceased Saraswati, prepared inquest report Ext. Ka-7, conducted spot inspection and prepared site plan, Ext. Ka 8, recovered empty cartridges from the spot and prepared it's recovery memo Ext. Ka-9, collected blood stained and plain earth from the spot and prepared it's recovery memo Ext. Ka-10. After interrogating other witnesses, PW8 charge sheeted only accused Aziz vide Ext. Ka-11. Further investigation into the crime was conducted by S.O. Jitendra Pal Singh Yadav, P.W. 4 who, concluding the same, charge sheeted rest of the two dacoits Shahid and appellant Jai Pal through separate charge sheets Ext. Ka-4 and Ka-5.