Delhi District Court
State vs Krishan Kumar S/O Dashrath on 3 October, 2011
IN THE COURT OF MS. MADHU JAIN,
ADDITIONAL SESSIONS JUDGE01, NORTH, DELHI.
FIR No.: 41/2009
PS: Lahori Gate
U/s: 489B/489C/34 of IPC
S.C. No.: 110/2010
Case ID No.02401R0269362009
In the matter of:
State
Versus
1. Krishan Kumar S/o Dashrath
R/o village Kohra Bazar, Mohalla Paschim Tola,
P.O.Daudpur Distt. Chhapra, Bihar.
2. Sanjay Kumar Ram S/o Sugreev Ram
R/o Village & PO Rafipur, PS Hussain Ganj,
Distt. Siwan, Bihar.
3. Noor Alam S/o Mohd. Hasim
R/o Ward No.28 near Masjid Shahid Ismile Takia,
Siwan, Bihar.
4. Wasim Ahmed @ Chhote S/o Ali Ahmed
R/o Ali Manjil, Naya Qila, Ward No.10,
Siwan, Bihar.
5. Izhar @ Azhar S/o Maqsood Alam
R/o Ward No.32 near Madarsa Sizazooloom,
Tilhatta Bazar, Siwan, Bihar.
FIR No. 41/2009 1/10
Date of receiving in Sessions Court : 08.07.2009
Arguments Heard : 24.08.2011 & 01.09.2011
Date of Judgment : 03.10.2011
JUDGEMENT
Case Of Prosecution:
1. On 30.3.2009, ASI Narender Singh while patrolling alongwith constable Neeraj Kumar reached at SPM Marg near Youngman Tennis Club where complainant Kiranpal met him and handed over a hundred rupee note alongwith accused Krishan Kumar to him.
Complainant Kiranpal gave his statement that he runs a thaiya of bidi, cigarette, gutka etc. at SPM Marg, Youngman Club. At about 4.15 p.m. accused Krishan Kumar had purchased five packets of Panbahar Gutka from him and had given a hundred rupee note to him. On suspicion, he checked the note and found the same to be fake. On the statement of complainant, case U/s 489B/489C IPC was registered at P.S Lahori Gate and from the personal search of accused Krishan Kumar, 13 fake currency notes in denomination of Rs.100/ and 63 fake currency notes in denomination of Rs. 50/ were recovered. The recovered fake currency notes were taken into possession and during the investigation, IO arrested accused Ravi Kushwaha at the instance of accused Krishan Kumar from Siwan, Bihar and at the instance of accused Ravi Kushwaha, accused Sanjay Kumar Ram was arrested from Siwan, Bihar. Subsequently on the basis of disclosure statement of accused Sanjay Kumar Ram, accused FIR No. 41/2009 2/10 Noor Alam was arrested who made disclosure about accused Wasim @ Chote and Azhar @ Izhar. Accused Wasim @ Chote and Azhar @ Izhar were also arrested from Siwan, Bihar and counterfeit currency notes were recovered from all of these accused persons. During further investigation of the case, IO sent the recovered currency notes to Currency Notes Press Nasik for expert opinion and after completion of investigation, filed challan u/s 489B/489C IPC against all the five accused persons in the court.
2. Since the offences U/s 489B and 489C IPC are exclusively triable by the court of sessions, therefore, after supply of the documents, Ld. MM committed the case to the court of Sessions.
Charge Against The Accused:
3. Prima facie case U/s 489B/489C IPC was made out against all the accused persons. Charge was framed against them to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
Witnesses Examined:
4. In support of its case, prosecution has examined 13 witnesses in all.
5. The brief summary of deposition of prosecution witnesses is as under:
Formal Witnesses:
6. PW1 is Head Constable Devender Kumar, the MHC(M) who FIR No. 41/2009 3/10 has proved the entries regarding deposition of case property in malkhana.
7. PW 5 is Constable Lovkush, PW6 is ASI Harinder Pandey and PW 7 is ASI Rajeshwar Chaudhary. They all are the police officials of Bihar who accompanied Delhi police officials during investigation of this case at Bihar.
8. PW11 is Constable Virender who took the sealed parcels to Govt. Currency Press, Nasik and deposited the same there. Material Witnesses:
9. PW2 is Kiran Pal, complainant of the case who has duly supported the case of prosecution and has also identified accused Krishan Kumar as well as the currency notes recovered from him.
10. PW3 is Head Constable Deep Chand who was with IO during the arrest of accused Wasim Ahmed and Azhar @ Izhar.
11. PW4 is Head Constable Pankaj Chaubey, the duty officer who registered the FIR and proved the same as Ex. PW4/A. He also accompanied the IO and other police officials during the arrest of accused Noor Alam and Sanjay Kumar Ram.
12. PW9 is Head Constable Niraj Kumar, PW10 is Constable Rahul and PW12 is SI Ravi Prakash who were with IO during the investigation of this case and have proved the memos etc.
13. PW13 is ASI Narender Singh, IO of the case who conducted the investigation of this case, arrested all the accused persons, recorded FIR No. 41/2009 4/10 their disclosure statements, recovered case property at the instance of accused persons and after completion of investigation filed the challan in the court.
14. Statements of all the accused U/s 313 Cr.P.C. were recorded wherein they denied the case of prosecution and stated that they are innocent and have been falsely implicated in this case. They all chose not to lead any evidence in their defence.
15. I have heard Ld. defence counsels for the accused persons and Ld. APP for the State and have carefully perused the record as well as the written arguments filed by them.
CONCLUSION:
16. PW2 is complainant Kiran Pal who is running a shop of biri cigarette near Youngman Tennis Club opposite Old Delhi Railway Station. He deposed that on 30.3.2009 at about 44.30 p.m. accused Krishan Kumar came to his shop and gave a hundred rupee currency note and purchased five pouches of Pan Bahar amounting to Rs.10/. He returned Rs. 90/ to him and when he was putting that hundred rupee note in his cash box, he felt that it was different from the other currency notes lying in the cash box. He called the accused back and took Rs. 90/ from him and told him that currency note given by him looks suspicious. He also showed hundred rupee note to other persons and those persons told him that note is fake. In the mean time two police officials came there and he handed over the hundred rupee currency note alongwith accused to FIR No. 41/2009 5/10 them. The police officials took the search of accused and recovered fake hundred rupee currency notes and fifty rupee currency notes from him. Some of them were fake and others were genuine. He deposed that total fake currency notes recovered from the accused were of face value of Rs. 4450/ and the genuine currency notes were of face value of Rs. 490/. Thereafter police recorded his statement Ex. PW2/A. This witness has further identified the fake currency notes as well as hundred rupee currency note given by the accused. He has been cross examined at length by counsel for accused Krishan Kumar but nothing material has come out of the cross examination of this witness. A suggestion has been given to this witness that he is not running any tea stall and is doing the work of water trolley in Ghaziabad but he denied the same. Witness further stated that he did not make any telephone call to police and rather police constable was coming from the front on foot. In chief examination also this witness has not stated that he called the police on telephone. He has further stated that when he found the note fake, he took back Rs. 90/ from the accused. He has also stated this fact in his chief. He has further admitted that fake currency note was in his hand when he handed over the same to the police. Counsel for accused Krishan Kumar argued that fake currency note was recovered from the witness and not from the accused. It may be mentioned it is not denied by the accused that he did not purchase gutkha from the shop of PW2. Moreover, the other currency notes were also recovered from the possession of the accused which were FIR No. 41/2009 6/10 fake. PW2 has also stated that police did some writing work in his presence but he did not know what they were writing. The testimony of this witness inspires confidence. There is no reason to disbelieve the same. Even in his cross examination he has been confronted with statement Ex. PW2/A given to the police which he admitted having made to the police and also admitted his signature on the same. He also admitted that he did not mention the number of the fake currency notes in his statement. Accused himself has given the contradictory suggestions to PW2. On one hand, a suggestion has been given to PW2 that he is not running any stall of bidi and cigarette but running a water trolley in Ghaziabad and on the other hand, a suggestion has been given to PW2 that he does the work of providing cots to the persons who come late in the night outside the Old Delhi Railway Station. PW2 has denied the suggestion that police took his signatures on blank papers. Nothing has come out of the cross examination of PW2. Moreover, PW2 is a simple public person and why he will get himself involved in police or court case when he has no prior enmity with the accused, has not been explained by the counsel for accused. It is not the defence of the accused that he has some prior enmity with PW2 due to which he would falsely implicate the accused and would take his name in a false case. There is no reason to disbelieve the same.
17. PW3 is HC Deep Chand who alongwith the other police officials and accused Noor Alam went to Bihar and arrested accused FIR No. 41/2009 7/10 Wasim and Izhar @ Azhar. In this case on the disclosure statement of coaccused, all the remaining accused have been apprehended by the police one by one. As per the case of the prosecution, the accused persons were apprehended from Siwan, Bihar but it seems that neither any public person has been joined by the IO during the investigation or during the recovery from the accused persons nor it seems that any public person has been joined by the IO during the investigation of the whole case. Except for accused Krishan Kumar who was apprehended at the complaint of PW2 Kiran Pal, during apprehension of other accused persons no public person has been joined by the IO. It has been admitted by the police officials that they did not ask for their search to the accused before taking the search of accused persons. As per the case of the prosecution all the accused were found in possession of fake currency notes. It is very strange that in their native village also which are quite small places the accused persons would be carrying the fake currency notes in their possession. It is also an admitted fact that from the house of accused Izhar or from the house of other accused persons no incriminating material has been recovered.
18. So far as the disclosure statement of accused is concerned, the disclosure statement is admissible in evidence if some recovery has been effected in consequence to that disclosure statement. In present case, when no incriminating fact/thing has been recovered in consequence of the disclosure statement of the accused persons, same is inadmissible in FIR No. 41/2009 8/10 evidence as per Indian Evidence Act.
19. PW5 is constable Lovkush from Railway Police Station, District Jamalpur, Bihar. Though this witness has signed on the documents but he stated that documents were not prepared in his presence neither the disclosure statement of accused was recorded in his presence. Even this witness is not able to identify the accused Krishan Kumar who accompanied Delhi Police. He has further stated that in his presence, IO did not ask any public person to become a witness. PW5 has stated that a call was made from a mobile phone but PW6 has stated that call was made from PCO. Even no specific identification mark has been put on the currency notes recovered from different accused persons. In such circumstances, how witness has been able to identify different currency notes recovered from different accused persons, has not been explained by the prosecution. As per PW7, from the search of accused Wasim, no incriminating material was found.
20. So far as accused Krishan Kumar is concerned, prosecution has been able to prove its case against him beyond reasonable doubt as not only he was found in possession of fake currency notes but also found using the same. So far as the other accused persons are concerned, there is no evidence against them that they were found using fake currency notes as genuine. As far as the possession of fake currency notes by other accused persons is concerned, then in view of various contradictions in the testimony of PWs and also in view of the fact that FIR No. 41/2009 9/10 none of the accused persons have been apprehended from a secluded place where no public person could be joined by the IO during apprehension of accused, it is highly unsafe to convict the accused persons only on the testimony of police officials. As such except for accused Krishan Kumar, other accused persons are given benefit of doubt.
21. In view of abovesaid discussion, accused Krishan Kumar is held guilty and convicted for the offence u/s 489B/489C of IPC. So far as the remaining accused are concerned, then prosecution has failed to prove its case against them beyond reasonable doubt. They are, therefore, acquitted of the offence. They are on bail. In view of the new amended section 437A of Cr.P.C., the bail bond already furnished by the accused persons are extended for the period of 6 months with the condition that they shall appear before the Hon'ble High Court as and when such notice is issued in respect of any appeal filed by the State against the judgement within a period of 6 months.
(MADHU JAIN) Additional Sessions Judge01 (North) Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi.
Announced in the open court today i.e. on 03.10.2011. FIR No. 41/2009 10/10