BALDEV SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a criminal appeal filed by Baldev Singh and Jaswant Singh and has been directed against the judgment and order dated 1.9.1992, passed by the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Sirsa, who convicted the appellants u/s 395, IPC, and sentenced them to undergo RI for a period of 7 years each.

(2.) BEFORE I start further, I may mention that this appeal has arisen from case FIR No. 63 dated 27.3.1990, registered in Police Station Sadar, Sirsa. In continuation of the chain of the facts of the present case, one more FIR No. 162 was registered against the appellants in Police Station City, Sirsa, u/s 458 IPC. In the second FIR, the appellants faced separate trial and they also suffered separate conviction.

(3.) ON 26.3.1990 at about 11.30 PM, complainant Balbir Chand was sleeping in his house situated in Dhani Nanakpura along with his wife Sudesh Rani, brother Baldev Raj and his wife Gurdeep Kaur, his brother Kewal Krishan and some children of the house. Balbir Chand woke up on hearing the barking of some dogs and noticed four miscreants had trespassed into his house. Those persons were holding revolvers under their clothes. They demanded from Balbir Chand his gun. Balbir Chand told them that the gun was not in the house. Upon this, the miscreants bolted the gate of that room from outside. After some time, they brought in that very room brothers of Balbir Chand; namely Kewal Krishan and Baldev Raj. They further removed the golden ear balis of his wife Sudesh Rani, wife of Balbir Chand, and Gurdeep Kaur, wife of Baldev Raj. They further removed a cash amount of Rs. 600/- from the pocket of Kewal Krishan. One Patilli (container) containing 10 kg. of pure ghee and some un-stitched clothes were also removed by the miscreants. A wrist watch of Recoh make and another wrist watch of HMT make were also removed. Then, three of those four persons took Sudesh Rani and Gurdeep Kaur on a tractor No. 2054, Hindustan make. The tractor belonged to Balbir Chand and his family members. The ladies were taken to C Block, Sirsa, where some other members of the family of Balbir Chand used to reside. One of the miscreants remained as guard as Balbir Chand and his two brothers were confined in one room in Dhani Nanakpura. Inder Dass and Mulkh Raj, neighbours, in the early morning opened the gate of the room, in which the three brothers were confined. After being free from there, these persons reached Police Station, Sadar, Sirsa, and Balbir Chand lodged FIR regarding this incident on 5.15 AM and FIR No. 63 dated 27.3.1990 u/ss 342/452/393/506, IPC, and section 25, Arms Act was registered. Section 5 of the TADA was also added in this FIR, which was lodged before SI Bal Kishore, PW-4. In the said FIR, the bodily description of the four miscreants was given.