NATTHU Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment shall also govern the disposal of Cr. A. No. 817/04 (Ramsevak and Anr. v. State of M. P.) and Cr. A. No. 1143/04 (Ram Sharan @ Laxman v. State of M. P. ). All these appeals arise out of a common judgment dated 7-4-2004 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Panna, in Sessions Trial Nos. 71/2000 and 70/2001, convicting the appellants under Section 395 read with Section 397, IPC and sentencing them to RI for 7 years.

(2.) THE prosecution story is that on 20-2-2000 a dacoity was committed in the house and shop of complainant Vijay Kumar (P. W. 15) in Village Vikrampur. At about 8-9 o'clock in the night, when Vijay Kumar was at his house alongwith his father Ramcharan and brother Ramgopal, Suraj Prasad and Ram Kumar, suddenly about 8 persons armed with gun, lathi, axe and Farsa reached there and assaulted them. Persons who were armed with guns, fired gun shots. When they shut down their doors, they broke open the doors and after entering into the house, they broke open almirah and robbed their silver ornaments, weighing about 6-7 kilograms, gold about 6-7 Tolas and cash Rs. 10,000/ -. When they tried to resist, they were assaulted as a result of which Suraj, Ram Kumar, Saligram suffered injuries. When Satendra Bahadur Singh and Surendra Singh came there and fired their guns, all the miscreants ran away alongwith the looted property. Among the robbers, one man was of short stature and olive complexion and another was of good height with beared. On his round when Station Officer of Police Station, Amanganj, viz. , Ashok Kumar Pandey reached the Village Vikrampur, a written report by way of Dehati Nalishi, Ex. P-31 was recorded. Injured persons, viz. , Peer Khan, Saligram, Suraj, Ramkumar, Chand Khan and Mohammad were sent for medical examination to PHC, Amanganj, where Dr. E. G. Dube examined their injuries. Saligram, vide his injury report, was found to have suffered 6 injuries. Suraj Prasad suffered 5 injuries and Ram Kumar suffered 3 injuries. All the injuries were found to be simple in nature.

(3.) A. K. Pandey, the Investigation Officer, during investigation, prepared spot map and seized pieces of broken doors, broken box, some pellets and pieces of cartridges from the spot. Ramcharan Soni submitted the list of the stolen properties to him on 21-2-2000. Similarly, Suraj Prasad, Mithilesh Soni and Anita Soni also submitted lists of their properties stolen in the occurrence. On 7-3-2000, he obtained custody of accused Ramsevak from Police Station Orchha Road and also seized the property recovered from him, vide Ex. P-26, By Orchha Police, Ramsevak, was formally arrested on 14-3-2000. Accused Ramavtar, Natthu and Ashok (Absconding) were arrested by Police Station Londi. Their custody was also obtained by him on 7-4-2000. On 28-4-2000, on the information of accused Natthu, vide memo Ex. P-12, he seized the property from the forest of Gehdara, vide seizure memo Ex. P-15. On the information of accused Ramavtar, he seized stolen silver Payal, ear rings and some small coloured stones from the forest of Gehdara on the same day, vide seizure memo Ex. P-13. According to prosecution, accused Ram Sharan was arrested by Kanwar Prasad Sen, ASI on 21-3-2001. However, there is nothing on record to show that any property was recovered from his possession. Arrested accused persons were put up for test identification by the witnesses, where they were identified by P. W. 7 Ram Kumar, P. W. 15 Vijay Kumar and P. W. 18 Suraj. Accused Ramsevak was identified by Suraj, Vijay and P. W. 17 Ramcharan. After requisite investigation, the charge-sheet was filed and the case was committed for trial.