Delhi District Court
State vs . Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. Sc No. 83 ... on 17 November, 2012
ID No. 02403R0069782002
IN THE COURT OF SH. VINAY KUMAR KHANNA,
ADDITIONAL SESSIONS JUDGE04 (SOUTH EAST)
SAKET COURTS: NEW DELHI
Sessions Case No. 83/2012
Unique ID No. 02403R0069782002
FIR No. 521/1997
PS : Vasant Kunj
U/s.302/307/34 IPC
State
Versus
Om Prakash @ O. P. Singh ,
s/o Sh. Brijender Singh ,
r/o Ibrahimpur, Roopwas,
District Bharatpur, Rajasthan
at present
17K/3, Jyoti Nagar, Jaipur,
Rajasthan ..........Accused no. 1
Inder Singh Bisht
s/o Late Sh N. S. Bisht
r/o Kothi no. 1, Shanti Kunj,
Vasant Kunj, New Delhi ..........Accused no. 2
Instituted on : 08th March, 2011
Argued on : 17th November,2012
Announced on :17th November,2012
J U D G M E N T
1. Criminal law was set into motion in this case on 16 th October 1997 by registration of FIR. In brief, case of prosecution is that a construction work in house no. 23, Shantikunj, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi belonging to Narender Pal Singh was in progress and labourers had been working there. On 16.10.1997, Smt. Neelam Devi w/o Ram Singh lodged a report with police station Vasant Kunj to the State Vs. Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. SC No. 83 of 2012 1/7 ID No. 02403R0069782002 effect that her husband Ram Singh used to work as painter in khoti no. 23 , Shanti Kunj, Vasant Kunj, where she had gone a number of times, in order to give food to her husband. According to her, some time ago, a theft took placed in the above said premises and her husband was interrogated in connection with that, on the previous night, accused Om Prakash Singh, who was nephew of co accused Narender Pal Singh along with a person, called Chaudhary, and who used to wear white turbans on his head and resided behind kothi no. 23 and two other persons came in a gypsy at her residence. It is alleged that they dragged Ram Singh and Manoj Kumar and shifted them to a jeep and thereafter, took them away saying that they were being taken to the kothi and would be released after half an hour after making inquiries from them. Since , the child of Smt. Neelam was ill, she could not go out at night. However, at 08:00am, she went to kohthi of accused Narender Pal Singh and found that the main door was locked. She peeped inside. After sometime, her husband Ram Singh came near the gate. He was frightened and told his wife that Narender Pal Singh, Om Prakash Chaudhary and their men have subjected severe beatings to him, Manoj Kumar and other persons and that she should go to the police station and inform the police. She went to police station Vasant Kunj and lodged a report. Police party comprising of SI Sushil Kumar, SI Dharamvdev, Ct. Dharminder, Ct. Balkishan and Ct. Mukesh reached at kothi no. 23 and opened its gate ,where injured Manoj, Ram Singh, Raju , Pradeep Ganga and Nahar Singh were found, who were having injuries on their bodies. Injured Pradeep was lying in an unconscious condition in the drawing room, whereas, Arjun was found dead on the terrace. Injureds were shifted to the State Vs. Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. SC No. 83 of 2012 2/7 ID No. 02403R0069782002 hospital . Place of incident was photographed. On the basis of statement of witnesses, it was found that Narender Pal Singh, Om Prakash Singh, Om Prakash Chaudhary, I. S. Bisht and driver Bhagat Singh abducted those persons, confined them at Kothi no. 23 and gave beatings to them with iron rod, pipe, sticks etc. Accused Narender Pal Singh was arrested from the spot. At his instance, blood stained clothes, iron rods, steel pipe were recovered from near the body of deceased. Cloth, danda, jute ropes were recovered. Dead body of deceased was sent for postmortem . Cause of death was opined by the autopsy surgeon as "multiple injury" on the body of deceased. On completion of investigation, charge sheet u/s 302/308/325/323/351/330/452/34 IPC was prepared and filed in the Court against accused Narender Pal Singh and Om Prakash Chadhary whereas, accused Om Prakash Singh, Bhagat Singh and I. S. Bisht being Proclaimed Offender were put in column no. 2 of challan.
2. Charges u/s 302/365/307/342 IPC r/w 34 IPC were framed against accused Narender Pal Singh and Om Prakash Chaudhary by the Learned Predecessor of this Court . Accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed trial. Accused Narender Pal Singh and O. P. Chaudhary were acquitted by Sh. Babu Lal, Ld. Predecessor of this Court on 09.10.2000. A supplementary charge sheet was filed against accused I. S. Bisht on 01.01.2002 and charge u/s 302 and 307 IPC r/w 34 IPC was framed against him on 12.12.2002. After the arrest of accused Om Prakash Singh, another supplementary charge sheet was filed against him on 31.08.2004 and charges u/s 302 and 307 IPC r/w 34 IPC against him were framed on 5.02.2005.
State Vs. Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. SC No. 83 of 2012 3/7 ID No. 02403R0069782002
3. I have heard Sh. Wasi Ur Rahman Addl. PP for the State and Sh. R. P. Khatana counsel for accused O.P. Singh @ Om Prakash and sh. Jitesh Srivastava counsel for accused I. S. Bisth and have perused the record carefully.
4. Following points emerged for determination in this case:
(i) Whether on 15.10.1997 in the night at Kothi no. 23, Shanti Kunj, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi ,accused I. S. Bisht and Om Prakash @ O. P. Singh alongwith other accused in furtherance of their common intention committed murder of Arjun Singh?
(ii) Whether on 15.10.1997, accused persons abducted and wrongfully confined Nahar Singh, Ganga, Raju, Badal Das, Manoj Kumar, Sri Ram Singh, Pradeep Kumar s/o Ram Dev and Pradeep Kumar s/o Ram Sewak and Arjun Singh ?
(iii) Whether at the aforesaid time and place, accused persons caused injuries to Nahar Singh, Ganga, Raju, Badal Das, Sri Ram Singh , Pradeep Kumar s/o Ram Dev and Pradeep Kumar s/o Ram Sewak and if so, whether they committed offence of attempt of their murder?
5. Prosecution in order to establish the accusation had earlier examined twenty witnesses, namely, Neelam Devi (PW1) Ram Singh (PW2), Dr. Ranjan Kumar (PW3), Dr. Alaxender (PW4), Pradip Kumar Ram Sewak (PW5), Raju (PW6), Ganga (PW7), Pradip s/o Ram Dev (PW8), Dr. Upma Saxena (PW9) , HC Harishankar (PW10), HC Ram Kishore (PW11), Ct. Dharmendra (PW12), HC Karamvir (PW13), HC Narhari Sharma (PW14), SI Dharamdev (PW15), Dr. Rakesh Singh (PW16), SI Madan Pal (PW17), Inspector S. S. Sandhu (PW18), W/SI Bala Mohan (PW19) and SI Sushil Kumar (PW20) .
6. After filing of supplementary charge sheet , three witnesses were examined by the prosecution. SI Dharam Dev (PW1) from police control room, State Vs. Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. SC No. 83 of 2012 4/7 ID No. 02403R0069782002 PHQ, W/SI Bala Mohan (PW2), CAW Cell, South District, PS Lajpat Nagar and ASI Hari Shankar (PW3) photographer. Admittedly, none of these witnesses has uttered anything incriminating against the accused. Summons to the material witnesses were sent numerous times . On 25.10.2012 ,Ld. Defence counsels made a statement to the effect that they do not want to cross examine any of the 20 witnesses who were examined earlier in their absence during the trial of co accused and also did not dispute the identity of accused. Attention of the Court was drawn towards statement of IO/inspector S. S. Sandhu dated 12.11.1999 to the effect that prosecution witnesses Manoj and Badal were not traceable and could not be produced. It was observed by this Court that this case was registered in the year 1997 and the accused were facing trial since last more than ten years, therefore, one more opportunity was granted to the prosecution to produce witnesses, who were earlier not traceable . Summons were sent to summon cell as well as DCP south.
7. I have also gone through the statement of witnesses, who have been examined and earlier considered by Ld. Predecessor of the Court while acquitting other co accused on 09.10.2000. Now, I shall briefly discuss the gist of testimony of material prosecution witnesses, who were examined earlier by the prosecution. Neelam Devi (PW1) complainant, deposed that she did not know how those persons sustained injuries. She was cross examined by Ld. Addl. PP . There is nothing in her testimony against the accused persons. Ram Singh (PW2) husband of complainant deposed that he was working in the house where a theft took place. He was taken to the police station for interrogation in connection with that theft State Vs. Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. SC No. 83 of 2012 5/7 ID No. 02403R0069782002 on 10.10.1997 and thereafter, he was released on 15.10.1997. According to him, Arjun had already died and removed to the hospital for medical examination. He deposed that none of the person who gave beatings to the labourers , was present in the Court. He was cross examined by Ld. Addl. PP. In cross examination, he denied interalia that accused Om Prakash or driver kidnapped from his house. He denied relevant portion of statement recorded u/s 161 Cr. P. C. put to him. Other Prosecution Witnesses namely, Pradeep (PW5), Raju (PW6), Ganga (PW7), Pradeep s/o Ram Dev (PW8) also did not say anything against the accused persons. All these witnesses were cross examined by Ld. Addl. PP. Even in the absence of accused Om Prakash Singh, these witnesses denied the suggestions that this accused had given beatings to Arjun with iron pipes. As alleged, no prosecution witness has uttered at all that accused Narender Pal Singh took out his pen and gave it to I. S. Bisht to write or got it signed forcibly so that it could be used later on or that I. S. Bisht scolded Manoj and got his signatures forcibly, as alleged by prosecution.
8. Thus, there is nothing on record to show that I. S. Bisht gave beating to Manoj. No prosecution witness has spoken about the role attributed on the part of I. S. Bisht and Om Prakash Singh and nothing could be elicited in their cross examination, which could be of any help to the prosecution. There is no evidence on record to establish nexus of accused with offence. In view of aforesaid reasons, I hold that prosecution has failed to bring home the guilt of the accused . In the result, accused Om Prakash @ O. P. Singh and Inder Singh Bisht are hereby acquitted from the charges against them. The bonds which have been furnished by State Vs. Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. SC No. 83 of 2012 6/7 ID No. 02403R0069782002 the accused persons shall remain valid for a period of six months as required u/s 437A Cr.P.C. File be consigned to Record Room.
announced in the
open court on (VINAY KUMAR KHANNA)
17th November 2012 Additional Sessions Judge04
(SouthEast) Saket/New Delhi
State Vs. Om Prakash @ O.P. Singh & Ors. SC No. 83 of 2012 7/7