SANJAY SINGH, Vs. THE STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BOTH the appeals arise against the judgment dated 27/09/2006, passed by the Sessions Judge, Latehar in Sessions Trial Case No. 48 of 2006, whereby the learned Sessions Judge has convicted the sole appellant Sanjay Singh of Cr. Appeal No. 1620/06 and two other appellants namely, Dadan Singh and Rajendra Mochi of Cr. Appl. No. 3/07 for committing the offence punishable under Section 395 of the Indian Penal Code and has sentenced them to undergo R.I. for 10 years each and also to pay a fine of Rs. 3000/ - each. In default of payment of fine, they were also liable to undergo S.I. for three months.

(2.) THE prosecution case, in short, is that on 25/01/2005, the informant was going to his village from Manika on his motorcycle bearing registration No. BR15 -9370. When he reached to Jhungur more at about 6.00 p.m., he saw a Tata 407 Bus was standing on the road. The informant thought that there was puncture of the tyre of that mini bus. In the mean tine, two persons came in front of the informant, armed with pistols and stopped him and demanded valuables. They took some money from his pocket and they gave threats to the life of the informant and then he delivered a sum of Rs. 13,000/ - to them. The informant was compelled to sit on the roof of Anku Mini Bus. The miscreants took his motorcycle. Some other persons were also sitting on the roof of. the bus. The dacoits, who were seven in numbers, were looting other persons who were passing through that road either by bicycle or by motorcycle. One Darogi Yadav reached to the place of occurrence on a motorcycle No. JH03B -0955, along with Samodhi Yadav and Jagdish Yadav. Somodhi Yadav and Jagdish Yadav were pillion riders of the motorcycle of Darogi Yadav. They were also looted and compelled to sit on the roof of the bus. The motorcycle of Darogi Yadav was also captured by the dacoits. Thereafter, all the seven dacoits started to flee away towards Manika on the motorcycle taken from the informant and Darogi Yadav. Four dacoits left by one motorcycle and three by another motorcycle from the place of occurrence. A person, who was looted, was having a mobile and he gave information about the occurrence to Panchpheri chowk. The informant left the place of occurrence on a motorcycle of another person. When he reached near panchayat Bhawan of Manika, he saw that the people who standing near the Panchayat Bhawan' were trying to surround the miscreants by shouting maro -maro. One of the culprits tried to fire towards the crowd but the same misfired. The crowd was very much agitated and started to throw the stones on the occupants of the motorcycle, as a result of which they fell down on the ground. The members of the mob started to assault the miscreants by stones, lathi and danda. One of the miscreants succumbed to his injuries inflicted by the members of the mob near the Panchayat Bhawan. In the mean time, the police reached near Panchayat Bhawan and arrested three miscreants with the help of local people. They disclosed their names as Sanjay Singh, Dadan singh and Rajendra mochi, all belonging to the District of Palamau. Some of the miscreants fled away taking advantage of darkness. The apprehended accused persons disclosed the name of those accused who fled away as Anil Chaoudhary, Dinesh Chaudhary and Harendra Pathak. On the road both the looted motorcycles, were lying. On the search of the bodies of the apprehended persons, a loaded country made pistol was recovered from the person of Dadan Singh, a life cartridge was recovered from the pocket of Rajendra Mochi and a loaded pistol was recovered from the place where the dead body of the dead culprit was lying. The apprehended persons also disclosed the name of the dead dacoit as Ayodhya Singh. The police seized the firearms after preparing the seizure list. Both the looted motorcycles were found lying on the Pakka road. Mini bus bearing No. BR15B 7860 returned to Manika on getting information that the dacoits were apprehended. The informant learnt from the passengers that a Nokia mobile bearing No. 9431338317 and a sum of Rs. 250/ - was looted from Udai Prasad. Cash amounts were also looted from Kameshwar Sharma, Kariman Sao Deowansh Yadav, Kameshwar Prasad, Tarachand Prajapati and the Driver of the bus Saryug Ram.

(3.) THE accused persons denied the charges and according to them, they were falsely implicated in this case.