FARASH RAM AND ANOTHER Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Farash Ram son of Shankar Dass and Ajit Singh son of Tarlok, both residents of village Kahlwan, Post Office, Kartarpur, District Jalandhar, have filed the present appeal to challenge the conviction and sentence recorded against them by the Additional Sessions Judge, Jalandhar on 2.6.1993.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts of the prosecution case, as brought out in the testimony of its witnesses, are that on 13.2.1991, at about 10.00 a.m. Kishore Kumar and his father Radhey Sham were present at the Kabari shop situated at Adda Basti Sheikh, Jalandhar, when two persons in military uniform came there and told Radhey Sham that they .had under their control 10 tonnes of scrap, two tonnes of waste paper and empty bottles etc. for being sold. A bargain was struck and the persons left the place asking Kishore Kumar and Radhey Sham to meet them at about 1.00 p.m. near the Octroi Post, Sansanpur with the amount that they had settled. The father and the son had arranged for the money and reached at the agreed place at about 2.00 p.m. The accused had also reached there and had advised Radhey Sham and Kishore Kumar to deposit the money in their office. Kishore Kumar, however, told them that they would like to see the material before making the payment and after taking the money from his father, he went along with the aforesaid persons on his scooter. When Kishore Kumar and the persons reached near the Defence Cinema, the scooter was stopped and they demanded the money from Kishore Kumar, who again insisted upon being shown the goods. There upon, one of them slapped Kishore Kumar and the other took out a pistol and asked him to pay the money where upon he had handed over Rs. 30,000.00 to the assailants, who had made good their escape on his scooter. Kishore Kumar returned to the place where his father was standing and they together lodged a report with Police Station Cantt, Jalandhar. On the same day, the two accused were apprehended near Phagwara Chowk and from the hand of Ajit Singh a bag carrying currency notes of Rs. 10,000.00, one blank cash receipt, two blank gate passes etc. was recovered. From the search of Farash Ram, currency notes of Rs. 10,000.00 of the denomination of Rs. 100.00 and Rs. 5000.00 of the denomination of Rs. 50.00 were recovered. These notes were taken into possession and subsequently identified as those which had been taken away by them from Kishore Kumar. During the investigation, the accused refused to join the identification parade before Shri B.S. Mangat, Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Jalandhar. On completion of the investigation, a challan was put in the Court of the Ilaqa Magistrate against them.

(3.) Upon receipt of the challan, the case was committed to the Court of Session for trial and the Additional Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, had framed a charge under Sec. 397 of the Indian Penal Code against the accused. Since, they pleaded not guilty, the prosecution was called upon to lead evidence in support of its case.