HARISHCHANDRA GOPAL HADKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, Harishchandra Gopal Hadkar, was tried before the Presidency Magistrate, 10th Court, Andheri, Bombay, under section 379 of the Indian Penal Code. The charge runs as follows :

(2.) The prosecution examined four witnesses, none of whome had seen the theft of the car being committed by the accused. P.W. 1, Shrinarayan Sukhanand Jain stated that on November 30, 1969, he had taken his car to the compound of Sangam theatre where he had gone for picture and that after the picture was over, when he came out he found his car missing. He went to Andheri Police Station the same night and gave his complaint. On December 3, 1969, he was informed by the Andheri Police Station that the car was traced out and it was shown to him at Kurla. All four wheels, stepney and many other parts of the car were missing. More than 14 months later, on March 25, 1971 he was again called by the police and he was shown some parts of the car, which he identified. He, however, stated in the cross-examination at the trial that all the parts were not recovered.

(3.) P.W. 2, Ashokkumar Ramchand, was the panch who made a panchnama on April 3, 1971, and stated that in his presence the accused stated that he would point out the person to whom he gave one radio and took the police and the panchas to Moral where one Nazir was pointed out and Nazir produced the radio at the instance of the accused and the panchnama was made in this behalf. But even the radio was not produced at the trial for the identification by Nazir. Nazir was also not examined. In the cross-examination, Ashokkumar said that the radio was a one band radio and it was not true that the property was at the Police Station.