SURENDER Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Prayer in both these appeals is for setting aside the judgment of conviction as well as the order of sentence dated 12.05.2017, vide which appellant Om Parkash @ Omi was convicted for offence punishable under Section 25 (IB) (a) of the Arms Act, 1962 (for short 'the Act') and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year along with a fine of Rs.5,000/- and in default of payment of fine, he was further ordered to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three months. Similarly, appellant Surender was sentenced for the offence punishable under Section 30 of the Act to pay a fine of Rs.2,000/- and in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three months.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that on the intervening night of 22/23.03.2015, on receiving an information about some firing incident in the area of Village Zahidpur, SI Jagdish Parshad of Police Station, Kosli, reached at the spot, where complainant Azad Singh son of Rambir Singh met him and moved a written complaint, inter-alia, alleging that on 22.03.2015, his harvest combine machine was harvesting mustard crop in the fields of village Zahidpur and on that day at about 10.00 p.m., he along with his nephew Abhinesh was going to the fields in village Zahidpur, where his driver was harvesting crops, on Bolero bearing registration No.HR-34B-8547 and when they reached near the house of Kuldip, resident of village Zahidpur, a Santro car bearing registration No.HR-36N-0155 came from opposite side and its driver put it before their vehicle and a boy alighted from that car and starting abusing them and then grappled with them and he suddenly took out a pistol and put it on the chest of nephew of the complainant and then put it on the temple of the complainant. On this, the complainant and his nephew pushed away that boy, on which he fired two shots towards them. On hearing the noise, their driver Malkiat Singh came at the spot and he tried to nab that boy and in that process that boy fired a shot on Malkiat Singh with an intention to kill him, but all of them narrowly escaped. Other persons had also gathered there and he came to know about name of the culprit as Omi @ Om Parkash caste Jat, resident of village Zahidpur and in the meantime the assailant ran away with his Santro car. SI Jagdish Parshad made his endorsement on the complaint moved by the complainant, on the basis of which, formal FIR was registered and he took over the investigation. During investigation, he inspected the spot and prepared rough site plan. After recording the statements of Malkiat Singh and Abhinesh, the police went in search of accused Om Parkash to his house, but he was not found there, but in the meantime, he was found coming in a vehicle Santro car bearing registration No.HR-36N-0155 and he was arrested and Santro car was taken in police possession vide a separate memo. Santro car was searched. On search, a revolver 7.6 mm along an empty of same caliber was recovered. Sketch of the revolver and empty was prepared. Revolver along an empty was taken in police possession after converting into sealed parcel vide a separate memo. On interrogation, accused Om Parkash admitted his involvement in the crime and further disclosed that the weapon was brought by him from the house of his friend Sulla. Pursuant to his disclosure statement, accused demarcated the place of occurrence.

(3.) After coming to know that the revolver was a licensed one of Surender Singh son of Amarjit Singh, on 30.03.2015, he was summoned to join investigation and he accordingly joined investigation and produced arms licence, which was taken in police possession vide a separate memo. Statements of the witnesses were recorded. Ultimately on completion of the investigation, report under section 173 Cr.P.C. against accused Om Parkash alone concluding that accused Surender has no role in this occurrence and his revolver was taken by accused Omi @ Om Parkash, without his knowledge.