SUBHAS BHATTACHARYYA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There are 7 appeals before us. Appeal No. 268 of 1981 has been preferred by the accused-appellant Subhas. The appeal bearing No. 279 of 1981 has been preferred by the accused-appellant Probhas. The next appeal bearing No. 280 of 1981 has been preferred by the accused-appellant Dwijendra. Criminal Appeal No. 300 of 1981 has been filed jointly by the accused-appellants Sadhan and Anil. The accused-appellant Phani Kar has preferred the Criminal Appeal No. 310 of 1981. Criminal Appeal No. 335 of 1981 has been preferred by the accused-appellant Sujit. Kalipada who is in jail has filed the jail appeal bearing No. 430 of 1981. We have heard all the appeals analogously and the following judgment shall govern all these 7 appeals. All the aforesaid 7 appeals are directed against the judgment dt. 18-7-81 passed by Shri Deb Kumar Chakraborty, Additional Subordinate Judge, Asansol, in Sessions Trial No. 47 of 1980.

(2.) The prosecution case as presented before the learned Additional Sessions Judge was as follows: Getting an infomation from the co-accused Probhas that a cheque for Rs. 18,84,119.25 was going to be encashed by C. L. W. from the local State Bank of India, Chittaranjan Branch, all the accused-appellants entered into a criminal conspiracy with one other to commit dacoity in the State Bank in an opportune moment. Now on 7th Jan, 1971 at about 11.30 a. m. P.W.6 Priyabrata Mukherjee, Assistant Cashier of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (C. L. W.) accompanied by two R. P. F. Guards namely, Hari Narayan Ram and M. S. Chowhar (P. W. 36) and two peons, Sankar Ghose and Dinabandhu Mondal (P. W. 5) came to State Bank of India, Chittaranjan Branch to encash the cheque for Rs.18, 84,119.25 on behalf of C. L. W. to enable the latter to make payment to its employees.

(3.) The two R. P. F. guards had muskets with each of them P. W. 2 Ash Bahadur Gurang at that time was on duty with one S. B. B. L. gun in front of the Cash Counter of the State Bank as a Security Guard of the Bank, P. W. 35 Ram Sankar Tewari on that day was one of the Cashiers of the Bank and he was entrusted with the disbursement of the cash to Shri Mukherjee, the said Assistant Cashier of C. L. W. under the said cheque. Just before the incident, the accused-appellant Probhas (senior cashier of the Bank) was engaged in a conversation with some of the miscreants who had bombs in their possession. At about 1.10 p. m. on that day after the entire cash under the said cheque was handed over to Shri Mukherjee, the Assistant Cashier of C. L. W. on the floor of the Cash Counter, Shri Mukherjee with the assistance of the said two Peons began to put currency notes inside the cash boxes brought earlier by him from the office of C. L. W. In all there were three cash boxes. When two of the boxes were already filled up and the third box was being filled up with the currency notes and the amount of Rs. 18,17,00/- was already kept inside those boxes, the accused persons suddenly appeared within the Bank premises being armed with Rifle, Revolver and bombs and they hurled 10/12 bombs both inside and outside the Bank premises, caused severe injuries to the R. P. F. Guards, snatched away the S. B. B. L. Gun No. 1694 from the State Bank's Guard, broke open the glass pane of the Cash Counter with the but of the Rifle, sealed cash counter, lifted away all the three boxes loaded with the currency notes and thereafter decamped with the booty in a black Ambassador Car parked outside the Bank premises. The miscreants also snatched away the muskets of the two R. P. F. Guards. The Guard of the Bank as also the two R. P. F. Security Guards were seriously injured and they had to be removed to K. G. Hospital, Chittaranjan for treatment for their injuries. Hari Narayan Ram one of the R. P. F. Guards, however, succumbed to the injury in that Hospital, P. W. 1 A. K. Banerjee, the Agent of that State Bank immediately informed Chittaranjan Police Station over phone. Thereafter S. I. N. R. Biswas (since deceased) the then O. C. Chittaranjan Police Station being accompanied by P. W. 45, S. I., Madan Roy and other officers and force arrived at S. B. I, Chittaranjan Branch when P. W. 1 Sri Banerjee handed over a written complaint (Ext. 1) regarding the incident to the Officer- in-charge, Chittaranjan Police Station. The O. C. Chittaranjan Police Station forwarded the complaint to the Police Station and on receipt of the same the Duty Officer drew up a formal F. I. R. (Ext. 2) on the basis of which Chittaranjan Police Station Case No.1 dt. 7- 1-71 was at once started under S. 4/5 of the Explosive Substance Act and under S. 25 of the Arms Act against the 5/6 unknown young men for committing dacoity in respect of Rs. 18,71,000/- and for committing murder of the said R. P. F. Guard. In course of the investigation on that very date a black Ambassadar Car (W. M. G. 1281) was found out from a hilly place in Maithea Dam Area. This car was used by the miscreants in arriving at the Bank premises before the incident and was also used by them at the time of going away with the stolen articles. In course of investigation again heavy bundles of currency notes amounting to Rs. 2 lakhs and odd were recovered from different places as shown by the accused-appellant Dwijendra, Phani Kar and others. Two of the cash boxes which were removed by the miscreants were also found out from a place shown by the accused Subhas. The S.B.B.L. Gun and the muskets were also recovered from places as pointed out by the accused appellants Anil and Dwijen Chandra.