PRITAM PUTUA Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Accused Pitam alias Putua and Babu Lal have been convicted on a charge u/s. 412 IPC by the jjjrd. AddI. Sessions Judge, Fatehpur, vide his judgment and order dated 19.2.1979 passed in S.T. No. 265/76, State v. Rameshwar and 5 others. They have been sentenced to undergo 3 years R.I.

(2.) A dacoity was committed on 12.9.1974 at about 10 P.M. at the house of Jangli and others. Apart from other looted properties, one Baja given at serial No. 1 belonging to Jangli in the F.I.R. and one Harmonium had also been looted from the house of the complainant. The F.I.R. was lodged on 13.9.1974 at about 2.05 A.M. after negotiating a distance of 8 miles. The accused were not named in the F.I.R. In the course, they were arrested by the Police, put up for the test identification parade and challaned. Accused Rameshwar, Siya Ram, Ganga Ram and Ram Narain were charged u/s. 395 IPC. The court acquitted them after extending them benefit of doubt. However, the accused Pitam alias Putua and Babu Lal, appellants, were convicted on the charge u/s. 412 IPC and convicted and sentenced as noted above the accused appellants before them. They also denied the recovery of the looted properties from them. However, they admitted their signatures on the recovery memos, exhibit ka 10 and ka H. They further stated that their signatures had been obtained on the recovery memos at the police station. Then the court was left with the only and solitary witness Inspector Basudeo Sahai, who had allegedly made recoveries. Relying upon the rulings of this Court as well as Supreme Court to the effect that the police witness statement was sufficient for conviction, learned AddI. Sessions Judge recorded the conviction as noted above.

(3.) Feeling aggrieved, the accused have come to this Court in the present appeal.