RAMESH AND ORS. Vs. THE STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this judgment, five Criminal Appeal Nos. S -1263 -SB, S -1277 -SB, S -1292 -SB, S -1317 -SB and S -1687 -SB of 2004 shall be disposed of as all the appeals have arisen out of same judgment of conviction and order of sentence. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts are being extracted from CRA -S -1687 -SB of 2004.

(2.) Brief facts as per the prosecution version are that on 14.10.2001, complainant -Hans Raj Demla, lodged a complaint with the Police stating that he runs a shop of wood and stone. On 14.10.2001 at about 7.00 PM, he started from his shop in his car bearing registration No. HR -10C -8570 for Sonipat. He was having an amount of Rs. 2,30,000/ - in his bag. He was also having certain papers pertaining to accounts of the shop, driving licence, voter card, registration certificate and insurance policy of the car in that bag. At about 8 pm. On reaching at his residence, he parked his car in the gallery of his house and closed the main gate. He also took out the bag containing the cash. The outside lights were on at that time. In the meantime, three young persons came inside after opening the gate and asked the complainant to hand over the bag containing cash to them. The complainant was knowing those persons as they used to come to his shop and their names were Ramesh Nai (Barber), Azad Pandit (Brahman) residents of Bakner and Vikas resident of Ahulana. The complainant asked the said persons as to what was the matter but all the three demanded the bag containing cash. The complainant became nervous and the bag was snatched from him by stating that he will be shot for not doing so. Azad and Vikas were armed with pistols. All the three ran away towards Bharat Hospital after snatching the bag. The complainant raised alarm but they were not visible.

(3.) On the basis of said statement of complainant, FIR was registered under Ss. 392, 395, 397 of Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC') and Sec. 25 of the Arms Act against five accused persons, namely, Azad, Ramesh, Joginder, Dharamjit @ Kala and Vikas. The accused were arrested and recovery of cash, country made pistol and knife was effected from them. The charges were framed under Sec. 397 IPC and Sec. 25 of Arms Act against accused persons. All the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.