Delhi District Court
State vs . 1. Virender Kumar Rai S/O Ganpati Rai on 16 August, 2012
IN THE COURT OF SH. VIRENDER BHAT, A.S.J., DWARKA
COURTS, NEW DELHI.
SC No. 49/09
Unique Case ID No.02405R0846782007
State Vs. 1. Virender Kumar Rai s/o Ganpati Rai
r/o H. No. 232, Pocket-6, Site-3,
Nasir Pur, Dwarka, Delhi.
2. Raj Kumar s/o Sh. Raj Pal
r/o H. No. 7/123, Nakul Gali,
Vishwas Nagar, Shahdara, Delhi.
3. Rohtash s/o Sh. Chander Bhan,
r/o RZ-68, Indira Park, Uttam Nagar,
Delhi.
4. Hari Narayan s/o Hari Dutt
r/o H. No. 117, Gali No. 2,
Jain Road, Laxmi Vihar,
Kakrola More, Delhi.
5. Satpal @ Sittu s/o Chander Bhan
r/o H. No. 301, Village Mangol Pur,
Delhi.
6. Yagya Dutt Sharma s/o Sh. Chander Bhan
r/o H. No. RZ-H/180, Raj Nagar-II,
Palam Colony, Delhi.
Date of Institution :09.05.2007.
FIR No. 255 dated 11.03.2007.
U/s. 255/256/258/259/420/468/471/473/412/411/34 IPC
P.S. Dwarka.
Date of reserving judgment/Order :16.07.2012
Date of pronouncement : 16.08.2012.
SC No.49/09 Page 1 of 75
JUDGMENT
1. The above named six accused have been charge- sheeted by Inter State Special Cell, Crime Branch, Chankaya Puri, New Delhi for having committed the offences punishable u/s 255/256/258/259/260/420/170/171/468/471/473 IPC. It has been claimed in the charge sheet that the Crime Branch Delhi Police had, on a specific input, busted and exposed the racket of printing fake postal stamps etc. being run by these accused.
2. As per the prosecution case, a secret information was received by HC Veer Pal on 10.3.2007 at 11 am., who was posted in the Inter State Cell Crime Branch, Chankaya Puri at that time, to the effect that "Virender Kumar and Hari Narain alongwith computer operator Yag Dutt Sharma were printing counterfeit postal stamps on the first floor of house near Old Syndicate Building, Palam. The informer also told HC Veerpal that one Satpal @ Situ would also be coming to the same place to sell counterfeit postal stamps at half the price of original postal stamps and the fake postal stamps could be purchased from him by telling the code word "Maange ne bheja hai". HC Veer Pal took the informer to ASI Chiranji Lal who after satisfying himself about the credibility of the information, produced the secret informer before ACP/ISC who was present in the office at that time. The ACP directed ASI Chiranji Lal to take immediate action. The secret information was also reduced to writing vide DD No. 3 at 11.25 am on 10.03.2007. ASI Chiranji Lal formed a raiding party consisting of himself, ASI Devender, HC Dilawar, HC Sanjay, HC Veerpal, HC Naseem, Constable Surinder, Constable Ved Prakash, Constable Sanjay, Constable Shiv Kumar, Constable Krishan and constable Devender. They left the office in Government Gypsy No. DL1CJ-3853 which SC No.49/09 Page 2 of 75 was being driven by HC Vijender and Toyota Qualis DL 1CJ-0517 driven by constable Anand Singh. The secret informer was also accompanying them. They reached Palam Village round about at 12.45 pm where ASI Chiranji Lal requested five public persons to join the raiding party but none was willing to do so and went away without disclosing their identities. ASI Chiranji Lal asked HC Veerpal to pose as a decoy customer. His personal search was conducted and his belonging including purse, identity card and money was handed over to constable Raj Kumar. ASI Chiranji Lal handed over to him Rs. 1000/- note bearing serial No. 7BE332427 and asked him to purchase counterfeit postal stamps from the person whom the secret informer would identify by using the code words "mange ne bheja hai". He was also directed to give a signal to the awaiting Police party after purchase of the counterfeit postal stamps from that person by waiving his hand over his head.
3. Both HC Veerpal and ASI went to the Old Syndicate Building, Palam and the other members of the raiding party awaited for the signal of HC Veerpal. At 1.15 pm, members of the raiding party were directed by ASI Chiranji Lal to hide themselves as it was time for Satpal to arrive. At about 1.45 pm, one person was seen coming down from the stairs of first floor at about No. WZ-391A, Main Market, Palam Village, New Delhi, who turned towards Old Syndicate Building, Palam. The secret informer identified that person as Satpal and confirmed it to HC Veerpal. Thereafter, the secret informer left the spot. HC Veerpal met Satpal and after five minutes waived his hand over his head. On getting the signal, the awaiting raiding party led by ASI Chiranji Lal apprehended Satpal, who was later identified as Satpal @ Situ s/o SC No.49/09 Page 3 of 75 Chander Bhan r/o House No. 301 Village Mangolpur, Delhi. HC Veerpal Handed over three sheets of counterfeit postal stamps to ASI Chiranji Lal which he had purchased from Satpal, each sheet contained 50 postal stamps. Two sheets contained postal stamps of Rs. 10/- denomination and one sheet contained postal stamps of Rs. 20/- denomination. The sheet were marked as A-1,A-2 and A-3 respectively. Satpal @ Situ disclosed that he and his associates had been printing counterfeit stamps at the first floor of the house.
4. It is further the case of the prosecution that keeping in view the gravity of the offence and the paucity of time, ASI Chiranji Lal and members of the raiding party immediately reached first floor of house No. WZ-391-A, Main Market, Palam Village, New Delhi where Yag Dutt Shrma s/o Sh. Chander Bhan was found sitting in front of computer near the right side of the wall and Virender Kumar Rai s/o Ganpati Rai and Har Narain s/o Hari Dutt were found sitting on the bench counting counterfeit postal stamps. The names of these persons came to be known after they are apprehended. ASI Chiranji Lal disclosed his identity as well as the identity of other members of the raiding party and the purpose of their visit.
5. On formal search, currency note of Rs. 1000/- denomination bearing No. 7BE332427 was recovered from the left pocket of Satpal's shirt, which note had been given by ASI Chiranji Lal to HC Veer Pal for purchase of the fake postal stamps. Satpal was carrying on a pink colour polythene bag in his right hand from which 39 sheets of fake postal stamps of denomination of Rs. 20/- and Rs. 48/- postal stamps sheets of Rs. 10 denomination were SC No.49/09 Page 4 of 75 recovered. The Rs. 1000/- currency note as well as the postal stamps sheets were seized by ASI Chiranji Lal. The Govt. vehicles alongwith drivers were called to the spot. ASI Chiranji Lal gave Rs. 15,00/- to HC Vijender Singh with directions to purchase original postal stamps of the denomination of Rs. 20/- and Rs. 10/- from GPO, New Delhi. He left the spot in Government Gypsy NO. DL1CJ-3853. The computer table used by accused Yag Dutt Sharma was checked and two sheets of postal stamps were found near the computer screen on the right side. One sheet contained postal stamps of Rs. 20/- and the other sheet contained postal stamps of denomination of Rs. 5/-. The sheets were marked as B-1 and B-2. From the computer table where Yag Dutt Sharma was sitting, one white colour scanner of make HP office Jet 4110 registration No. US2N6FA03VPL5M02-03, one printer make HP Model 3500 S.No. CNCRN20680, one CPU make OPTIPLEX GX l S.No. 834F1 Model No.MMP from which one hard disk was detached of make MAXTOV S.No.11S36L8632ZJ16JKPO1549.
6. The hard disc was packed with the help of medical tape in a transparent polythene and sealed with the seal of CL. One CD was also found in the CD driver of CPU which was of make EUROVISION CD-R 80/N700MB/52X. The CD was also packed in a transparent polythene with medical tape and sealed with the seal of CL. One computer screen of make Samsung, one black colour key board of make intex, one mouse of make Samsung, one power cable with black colour adopter, one CPU cable, one scanner power cable, one USB cable and two software scanner CDs which were kept on the left side of the computer screen were also seized. Virender Kumar Rai present in the room was having 100 SC No.49/09 Page 5 of 75 sheets of fake postal stamps in his hands,each sheet contained 50 stamps of Rs. 20/- denomination. The sheets were marked as Sl.No.C1 to C100. Further on formal search of the accused Virender, one pen drive of black colour having storage capacity of 1 GB was recovered from the pocket of his wearing shirt. The pen drive was sealed in transparent polythene with the help of medical tape and seized. Hari Narain was found carrying 110 sheets of fake postal stamps, each sheet containing 50 postal stamps. Out of these, 20 sheets contained fake postal stamps of denomination of Rs. 10/-, 90 sheets contained postal stamps of denomination of Rs. 20/-. Meanwhile HC Vijender arrived t the spot after purchasing the original postal stamps from GPO, New Delhi and handed over two sheets containing postal stamps in the denomination of Rs. 10/- and Rs. 20/- respectively to ASI Chiranji Lal. Both the sheets contained 50 postal stamps. All the recovered fake postal stamps were compared with the original postal stamps and it was found that the fake postal stamps recovered from the accused did not have water mark, their colour was faded, the paper was dull and the perforation on the sheets were not of same standard. All the postal stamps sheets recovered from the accused were found to be fake. The fake postal stamps sheets recovered from the accused were given different markings and were packed in different envelopes. Thereafter they were seized. The seal, after use, was handed over to HC Sanjay Kumar.
7. Accused Virender Kumar Rai is stated to have revealed that he had been running a fake parallel office of Food and Supplies, MCD Delhi etc. from the same premises and that he kept the related documents in the steel almirah in the left corner of the SC No.49/09 Page 6 of 75 room. The almirah was searched and three rubber stamps (1) Charak Palika Hospital Moti Bagh, Delhi , (2) Deen Dayal Upadyay Hospital CMO (3) Deptt. Of Food Supply Circle 22 and one ready made rubber stamp kit were recovered. Apart from this, three Food & Supply registers, in which enrollments of different months of the employees were recorded, seven file covers, in which blank letter heads of Deptt. Of Food and Supply, Delhi Police, New Delhi Municipal Council and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital alongwith joining letters of the same as well as interview letters of different employees, blank formats of the pay roll and survey reports, assessment forms affixed with the photographs and particulars of employees etc. were taken out and seized. 78 original mark sheets and degrees were also recovered from the almirah. On the basis of the aforesaid recoveries, ASI Chiranji Lal prepared rukka and got the FIR registered u/s 255/256/258/259/260/420/170/171/468/471 /473 IPC. The investigation of the case was entrusted to ASI Rishi Ram, who reached the aforesaid spot and ASI Chiranji Lal handed over the entire case property as well as documents to ASI Rishi Raj and also apprised him about the facts of the case.
8. Accused Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain, Satpal @ Situ and Yagdutt Sharma were arrested and they are stated to have made separate disclosure statements admitting their involvement in the commission of aforesaid offences.
9. It is the further case of the Prosecution that at the instance of accused Virender Kumar Rai, one metal dye was recovered from his office at M-14, Niti Vihar, Mubarak Pur, Delhi, engraved with the mark of RBI three times with the mark of 100 SC No.49/09 Page 7 of 75 three times and linings on it at thee places. As per his disclosure statement a part of the dye was in possession of accused Hari Narain. Accused Hari Narain and accused Virender Kumar Rai further disclosed that they had one secret hideout at Vasant Vihar in which they alongwith other associates accused Rohtash and accused Raj Kumar used to print counterfeit postal stamps with the help of computer operator Raj Kumar, who helped them in designing the graphics on the stamps. The official of Postal Department namely Sh. S.N. Dondiyal, Assistant Superintendent Post Investigation was called to the office of Crime Branch and was asked to join the investigation. The police party alongwith Sh. S.N. Dondiyal reached Flat No. 132, IInd Floor, Janta Flats Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi at the instance of and pursuant to the supplementary disclosure statement of accused Hari Narain and Virender Kumar Rai. A person was sitting on a hand press machine in a room of the flat, working on the machine and he was identified by the accused to be accused Rohtash i.e. their other associate. From the second room of the of the said flat, a hand press machine used to perforate the sheets of counterfeit postal stamps, 229 sheets of counterfeit postal stamps in complete and incomplete form of various denominations were recovered from the possession of accused Rohtash.
10. One entire set of computer compaq, 11 software CDs, 12 cartridge printer, blank sheets to print the fake postal stamps, leap printed documents, lots of postal documents including the cheques and postal orders , two rubber stamps of Assistant Director (H) LIG DDA and Rohit Enterprises were recovered in another room. All these articles were seized and sealed by the SC No.49/09 Page 8 of 75 Police.
11. From a wooden shelf's drawer of the same room, passport, discharge certificates, Saral Form, one agremet to seall in respect of the same flat i.e. flat No. 132, electricity bills, telephone bills, 12 cheque books of different banks in the name of Rohtash Kumar and Rohtash Tanwar, seizure memo of CBI case against accused Rohtash and Hari Narain, credit cards of different banks were recovered and seized by the Police. From the middle drawer of the same total 32 Kissan Vikas Patra filled up of Rs. 5000/- each and 13 Kissan Vikas Patra filled up of Rs. 10,000/- each and three Blank Kissan Vikas Patra of Rs. 10,000/- each , one postal saving two year plan bearing account No. 976172 of Muzaffar Nagar Post Office with credit of Rs. Three lacs and some other blank pass books and application forms of postal savings were also recovered which were also seized and sealed. Accused Rohtash was arrested , interrogated and his disclosure statement was also recorded.
12. Sh. S.N. Dondiyal informed the Police Party that the recovered counterfeit postal stamps sheets and Kissan Vikas Patra were part of the case property in a CBI case vide RC-01(E)99-SIU- IX CBI in which accused Rohtash and Hari Narain were on bail. He further informed that the remaining blank Kissan Vikas Partras were the case property of a dacoity case at Post Office Ranchi Medical College Station vide FIR No. 401/05, PS Bairatu, Ranchi. Accordingly Section 412 and 411 IPC were added to the FIR.
13. Prosecution further alleges that on 16.03.2007, three SC No.49/09 Page 9 of 75 portions of brass metal dye engraved with 50 three times, photograph of Mahatma Gandhi and mark of RBI Security thread alognwith other documents were recovered from the house of accused Rohtash bearing No. 17/A, Gali No.2, Jain Road Laxmi Vihar, Uttam Nagar, Delhi. Accused Raj Kumar was arrested on 17/3/2007 at the instance of accused Hari Narain and one scanner of make Umax Astra 7350 with cables, one ploythene bag containing 51 sheets of counterfeit postal stamps, some loose tickets, two sheets of water marks were recovered from his house bearing No. 7/123, Nakul Gali, Vishwas Nagar, Delhi. All these recovered articles were packed, sealed and seized by the Police.
14. It is stated that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that accused Rohtash was residing as a tenant in flat No. 132, Vasant Apartment, Vasant Vihar under Smt. Sundari Khan. The General Power of Attorney found in the flat in respect of the same flat allegedly executed by one Prem Singh in favour of accused Rohtash, after verification from the Office of Sub- Registrar, Janak Puri, came to be known to be a forged document. The statement of all the relevant witnesses was recorded. The hard disks, pen drive, software CDs were sent to CFSL, Chandigarh for analysis. The counterfeit stamp sheets were sent for analysis to Indian Security Press Nasik. The metal brass dye parts were sent to the Indian Currency Press, Nasik. It is stated that counterfeit postal stamps worth about Rs. 4,50,000/- were recovered from the possession of accused persons. Kissan Vikas Patras totalling to the amount of Rs. 3,20,000., which was the stolen property, have been recovered from the possession of the accused. After completion of the investigation, charge sheet was laid before the concerned MM.
SC No.49/09 Page 10 of 7515. Upon committal of the case to the Courts of Sessions, following charges were framed against all the six accused on 25.05.2010:-
"That on or before 10.3.2007 you all six accused persons agreed to do an illegal act by illegal means and entered into a criminal conspiracy with each other namely counterfeiting postal stamps or knowingly performed any part of the process of counterfeiting stamps issued by the Government for purpose of revenue and were found in possession of instruments or material for counterfeiting Government stamps or knowing or having reason to believe that it is intended to be used for the purpose of counterfeiting any stamps issued by Government for purpose of revenue and made or performed any part of the process of making any instruments for the purpose of being used or knowing or having reason to believe that it is intended to be used for the purpose of counterfeiting a stamp issued by Government for the purpose of revenue sold or offered for sale counterfeit Government Stamps having reason to believe the same to be counterfeited of any stamp of the Government issued for the purpose of revenue and were found in possession of stamps knowing it to be counterfeited of any stamp issued by the Government for the purpose of revenue and used as genuine any stamp knowing to be counterfeit of any stamp issued by the SC No.49/09 Page 11 of 75 Government for the purpose of revenue and besides the aforesaid agreement you did some acts in pursuance of the said agreement to commit offences punishable u/s 255/256/258/259 & 260 IPC, offences punishable with death or imprisonment for life, and thereby committed an offence punishable u/s 120B IPC within the cognizance of this court.
That that in pursuance of the said conspiracy, on 10.3.2007, accused Satpal sold three sheets of counterfeit postal stamps out of which two sheets were of denomination of Rs. 10/- and one sheet of denomination of Rs. 20/- and each sheet consisted of 50 postal tickets, to HC Veerpal for a sum of Rs. 1000/- knowing or having reason to believe the same to be counterfeit stamps issued by Government for the purpose of revenue and thereby committed an offence punishable u/s 258 IPC read with Section 120B IPC, and an offence punishable u/s 420 IPC for charging a sum of Rs. 1000/- for selling genuine Government stamps but infact sold counterfeited stamps.
That on 10.3.2007, accused Satpal was found in possession of three sheets of 100 counterfeited stamps of denomination of Rs. 10/-
on which words 10oo Bharat India Bagh Sunder SC No.49/09 Page 12 of 75 Van Jeev Mandal Abhyaran Tiger Sundervan Biosphere Reserve was printed and on one side of the sheet BHA.PU.MA Nasik Road ISP Nasik Road, N-33 was printed besides a tiger with light red colour on a light green colour page and 50 counterfeited stamps of denomination of Rs. 20/- on which Bharat India 20oo Amaltaas was printed and on the other side of the sheet BHA PRA MA Nasik Road ISP Nasik Road y-6 was printed and besides that 39 sheets of fake postal stamps of denomination of Rs. 20/- and 48 sheets of denomination of Rs. 10/- were recovered from accused Satpal and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 259 IPC read with Section 120B IPC within the cognizance of this court.
That in pursuance of criminal conspiracy, accused Yagya Dutt Sharma, accused Hari Narain and accused Virender on 10.3.2007 were found in possession of two sheets of counterfeited postal stamps and instruments and materials for the purpose of being used or knowing or having reason to believe that they are intended to be used for the purpose of counterfeiting any stamp issued by the Government for the purpose of revenue such as scanner, printers, hard disk, computer, CD, CD Drive, keyboard, mouse and thereby committed an offence punishable u/s 255 SC No.49/09 Page 13 of 75 IPC, Section 256 IPC and Section 259 IPC read with Section 120B IPC within the cognizance of this court.
That in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy on 10.3.2007, from accused Virender ten sheets of fake postal stamps and one pen drive, knowing or having reason to believe that the same are intended to be used for he purpose of counterfeiting stamps issued by Government for the purpose of revenue and such stamps were counterfeited and knowingly performed part of process of counterfeiting the fake stamps issued by the Govenment of India for the purpose of revenue and thereby committed offences punishable u/s 255 IPC, 256 IPC and 259 IPC read with Section 120 B IPC within the cognizance of this court.
That on 10.3.2007, 110 sheets of fake postal stamps each sheet containing 50 postal stamps of denomination of Rs. 10/- and Rs. 50/-, the pattern of logos on all the sheets so recovered, were similar to the stamps recovered from other co-accused persons and counterfeited or knowingly performed any part of the process of counterfeiting such stamps before 10.3.2007 issued by the Government of India for the purpose of revenue and thereby committed offences SC No.49/09 Page 14 of 75 punishable u/s 255 IPC, 259 IPC read with Section 120 B IPC.
That in pursuance of criminal conspiracy accused Satpal prior to 10.3.2007 sold counterfeited stamps to advocate Puneet Bhalla and 54 registered AD affixed with counterfeited stamps were recovered at the istance of accused Satpal from the office of Advocae Puneet Bhalla at GF-1, Gopal Tower, 25, Rajender Palace, New Delhi and as such sold fake counterfeited stamps to Puneet Bhalla knowing them to be counterfeit and used the counterfeit stamps known to be counterfeit of the stamps issued by the Government for the purpose of revenue and also cheated Puneet Bhalla of the amount so charged for selling of counterfeit stamps and thereby committed offences punishable u/s 258 and 260 IPC and Section 420 IPC read with Section 120 B IPC within the cognizance of this court.
That in furtherance of criminal conspiracy, four sheets of fake postal stamps of denomination of Rs. 20/- and Rs. 10/- were got recovered by accused Satpal from his house, thereby committed an offence punishable u/s 259 IPC read with Section 120 B IPC within the cognizance of this court.SC No.49/09 Page 15 of 75
That in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, instruments for manufacturing of counterfeit postal stamps in the shape computer accessories and hand press machine, CDs, postal documents, rubber stamps of Assistant Director, (H) LIG DDA were got recovered by accused Rohtas and accused Raj Kumar a graphic designer, who used to prepare graphic designs of fake postal stamps similar to the postal stamps issued by Government for the purpose of revenue and thereby committed offence punishable u/s 256 read with Section 120 B IPC within my cognizance.
That in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, accused Rohtas, on 16.3.2007 from flat No. 132, 2nd floor Janta Flats, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, got recovered 32 counterfeited Kissan Vikas Patra filled up of Rs. 5000/- each, 13 Kissan Vikas Patra filled up of Rs. 10,000/- each and three blank Kisan Vikas Patra of Rs. 10,000/- each which were counterfeited or knowingly performed a part of the process of counterfeiting, thereby committed offence punishable u/s 255 IPC and 259 IPC read with Section 120B IPC, within the cognizance of this Court.
That in pursuance of the criminal conspiracy, on 16.3.2007 from flat No. 132, 2nd SC No.49/09 Page 16 of 75 floor Janta Flats, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, accused Rohtas and accused Raj Kumar got recovered one entire set of computer compaq, 11, software, CDs, 12 cartridges, printer, blank sheets to print the fake postal stamps, leap printed documents, i.e. instruments or material for the purpose of being used or having reason to believe that they are intended to be used for the purpose of counterfeiting any stamps issued by the Government for the purpose of revenue and thereby committed offence punishable u/s 256 IPC read with Section 120 B IPC within the cognizance of this court.
That in pursuance of the criminal conspiracy, accused Rohtas got recovered one machine hand press used to proforate the sheets of counterfeit postal stamps, 229 sheets of counterfeit postal stamps in complete and incomplete form of various denominations and thereby committed an offence punishable u/s 259 IPC and 256 IPC read with Section 120B IPC within the cognizance of this court.
That on 17.3.2007, in pursuance of criminal conspiracy, accused Raj Kumar was found in possession of one scanner, UMAX ASTRA 7350 10-00305 with one cable, i.e. instruments or material for the purpose of being used or knowing SC No.49/09 Page 17 of 75 or having reason to believe that they are intended to be used for the purpose of counterfeiting any stamp issued by the Government for the purpose of revenue and from such instruments counterfeited or knowingly performed any part of the process of counterfeiting of 51 sheets of counterfeit postal stamps in complete and incomplete form and some used tickets and 2 sheets of water marks to print on the rear side of the counterfeited stamps from his house No. 7/123, Nakul Gali, Vishwas Nagar, Delhi and thereby committed an offence punishable u/s 255 IPC, 256 IPC and 259 IPC read with Section 120 B IPC within the cognizance of this court."
16. Following additional charge was framed against accused Virender Kumar Rai on the same date:-
"That at unknown date and time at WZ-391A, Ist Floor, Main Market, Palam, Delhi you accused Virender impersonated yourself as senior officer in Food and Supply Department before one Ganesh Kumar Mishra and cheated him to the tune of Rs. 1,60,000/- on the pretext to give him a job and was running a fake parallel office of Food and Supplies MCD from the first floor of the premises and was found in possession of three rubber stamps of Charak Palika Hospital, DDU Hospital and Deptt. Of Food & Supplies and one readymade SC No.49/09 Page 18 of 75 rubber stamp kit, registers, joining letters, blank format, survey reports, assessment forms and 78 original mark sheets and degrees and cheated the persons by selling such degrees and thereby committed offence punishable U/s 170 IPC and 171 IPC and Section 420 IPC and within the cognizance of this court.
Secondly, on or after 10.3.2007 at M-14, Niti Vihar, Mubarik Pur, Delhi, you accused person forged an appointment letter to one Ganesh Kumar Mishra for purpose of cheating him to the tune of Rs. 1,60,000/- and thereby committed offence punishable U/s 468 IPC and within the cognizance of this court.
Thirdly, at unknown date and time at the aforesaid place, you accused was found in possession of counterfeit seals and other material belonging to Food and Supplies Department, Weights, Measures and Consumer Affairs, Govt of India and NDMC with intention to commit forgery otherwise knowing the same to be counterfeit and thereby committed offence punishable U/s 473 IPC and within the cognizance of this court."
17. Following additional charge was framed against accused Hari Narain and Virender Kumar Rai on the same date:-
SC No.49/09 Page 19 of 75"That you both the accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy to do an illegal act namely to manufacture fake currency notes and in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, were found in possession of counterfeit currency notes knowing or having reason to believe that the same are counterfeited currency notes and thereby committed offence punishable U/s 120 B IPC and within the cognizance of this court.
That in furtherance of criminal conspiracy, on or before 10.3.2007 at M-14, Niti Vihar, Mubarak Pur, Delhi, you accused virender was found in possession of one brass metal dye whereupon the mark of RBI was engraved thrice and there were three marks of 100 and there were three times the lining on knowing or having reason to believe that it is intended to be used for forging and counterfeiting currency notes and accused Hari Narain at house No. 17/A, Gali No.2, Jain Road, Laxmi Vihar, Uttam Nagar, Delhi, was found in possession of three portions of brassmetal dye engraved with Mark 50 three times, photograph of Mahatma Gandhi and mark of RBI security thread alongwith other documents knowing or having reason to believe that it is intended to be used for forging and counterfeiting currency notes and thereby both accused committed offence SC No.49/09 Page 20 of 75 punishable U/s 489(d) IPC and within the cognizance of this court.
That in furtherance of criminal conspiracy, at the aforesaid time and place, accused Virender was found in possession of counterfeit currency of the denomination of Rs. 50/- and Rs. 100/- and accused Hari Narain was found in possession of fake postal stamps and sheets of denomination of Rs. 10/- and Rs. 20/-thereby committed offence punishable u/s 489 (c) IPC, within the cognizance of this Court."
18. Following additional charge was framed against the accused Virender Kumar Rai on the same date:-
"That at unknown date and time at WZ-391A, Ist Floor, Main Market, Palam, Delhi you accused impersonated yourself as senior officer in Food and Supply Department before one Ganesh Kumar Mishra and cheated him to the tune of Rs.
1,60,000/- on the pretext to give him a job and was running a fake parallel office of Food and Supplies MCD from the first floor of the premises and was found in possession of three rubber stamps of Charak Palika Hospital, DDU Hospital and Deptt. Of Food & Supplies and one readymade rubber stamp kit, registers, joining letters, blank format, survey reports, assessment forms and 78 SC No.49/09 Page 21 of 75 original mark sheets and degrees and cheated the persons by selling such degrees and thereby committed offence punishable U/s 170/171 IPC and within the cognizance of this court.
Secondly, on or after 10.3.2007 at M-14, Niti Vihar, Mubarik Pur, Delhi, you accused person forged an appointment letter to one Ganesh Kumar Mishra for purpose of cheating him to the tune of Rs. 1,60,000/- and thereby committed offence punishable U/s 468 IPC and within the cognizance of this court.
Thirdly, at unknown date and time at the aforesaid place, you accused person was found in possession of counterfeit seals and other material belonging to Food and Supplies Department, Weights, Measures and Consumer Affairs, Govt of India and NDMC with intention to commit forgery otherwise knowing the same to be counterfeit and thereby committed offence punishable U/s 473 IPC and within the cognizance of this court."
19. Following additional charge was framed against the accused Rohtash on the same date:-
"That you accused Rohtas, prepared a forged valuable security namely an agreement to SC No.49/09 Page 22 of 75 sell of flat No. 132, IInd floor, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi purportedly between Prem Singh, s/o Sh. Trilok Chand and you accused Rohtas and was found in possession thereof and thereby committed an offence punishable u/s 468 IPC within the cognizance of this court."
20. The prosecution has examined following 33 witnesses to prove aforementioned charges against the accused:-
PW-1 SI Chinta Ram, who was the duty officer at PS Dwarka, had registered the FIR in this case.
PW-2 HC Yogesh Mumar, who was MHC(M) in PS Dwarka and had received the pullindas prepared in this case.
PW-3 Sh. Subhash Chand, who is resident of house No.WZ-391, Palam Village, which is adjacent to the room, which had been taken on rent by the accused Virender Kumar Rai.
PW-4 Smt. Sundari Khan, who is the owner of flat No. 132, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi and deposed that she had given the said flat on rent to accused Rohtash, in the year 2006.
PW-5 HC Vinod Rathi, who was duty officer at Crime Branch Office, Chankya Puri in March, 3007 and had recorded DD No. 3.
PW-6 Sh. S.N. Dondiyal, who was posted as SC No.49/09 Page 23 of 75 Assistant Superintendent (Vigilence) Post Office in March, 3007 and had joined the investigation of this case on 16.03.2007.
PW-7 Sh. Puneet Kumar Bhalla, Advocate who deposed that accused Satpal @ Situ used to take various legal notices from his office for dispatching them by registered post or speed post.
PW-8 HC Veer Pal, who had received the secret information in this case and also was a member of the raiding party.
PW-9 Sh. Om Prakash, Superintendent Education Branch, G Block, Vikas Puri, New Delhi had given reply Ex. PW9/A in response to a notice u/s 91 Cr.P.C. informing that the GPA bearing registration No. 4436 volume No. 99306 dated 21.3.2001 in respect of property No. 132, IInd floor, Basant Enclave, Vasant Vihar in favour of accused Rohtash s/o Bhan Chander has not been registered in their office.
PW-10 ASI Chiranji Lal of Crime Branch, on receiving the secret information recorded DD No. 3 and on the instructions of ACP and Inspector, formed a raiding party comprising of himself, ASI Devender, HC Dilawar, HC Virpal, HC Vijender, Constable Sanjay, HC Sanjay, Constable Anand, Constable Shiv Kumar, Constable Raj Kumar, Constable Krishan etc. and remained in the investigation of the present case.
PW-11 HC Vijender who was posted at ISC Crime SC No.49/09 Page 24 of 75 Branch, Chankya Puri, New Delhi was also one of the members of the raiding party and joined the investigation of this case.
PW-12 HC Sanjay was also posted at ISC Crime Branch, Chankya Puri, New Delhi and was one of the members of the raiding party, who joined the investigation of this case.
PW-13 HC Dilawar was posted at ISC Crime Branch, Chankya Puri, New Delhi and he was also one of the members of the raiding party and joined the investigation of this case.
PW-14 Sh. Vinod Kumar, PW-15 Sh. Anoop Kumar, PW-16 Rajesh Kumar, PW-17 Sonu Kumar, PW-18 Duli Chand, PW-19 Surender Kumar, PW-20 Mohan Shyam, PW-21 Pawan Kumar, PW-23 Vijay Kumar, PW-24 Sanjay Kumar and PW-25 Dinesh are the young boys who were in search of jobs and, from whom accused Virender Kumar Rai had taken a huge amount on the false pretext of giving them employment in different Govt. Departments.
PW-22 Dr. S.S. Murthy, working as Senior Scientific Officer, in CFSL, Chandigarh at the relevant time, had examined the exhibits contained in the six sealed parcels as well as two blank hard disks, sent to its Office at Chandigarh and submitted his report Ex. PW22/A and printout containing digital images as Ex. PW22/B. PW-26 Sh. Krishan Chander is the owner of house bearing No. A-17, Jain Road, Bhagwati Garden, Uttam Nagar, New SC No.49/09 Page 25 of 75 Delhi who had given the said house on rent to accused Hari Narain.
PW-27 Sh. Jagdish Khatri had let out his shop No. M-15, Main Mubarakpur Road, Near Madanpur Village, Nangloi, New Delhi to accused Virender Kumar Rai.
PW-28 Inspector Jitender Singh, was posted as Inspector in Special Investigation Team, Crime Branch, Sector-18, Rohini, Delhi and had examined and analyzed the two copies of questioned Hard Disks, Pen drive and two computer CD serial No. 1 and 11 and proved the print outs taken by him, as Ex. PW28/A. PW-29 Sh. Dalbir Singh, Commercial Officer, MTNL, Chankya Puri, Telephone Exchange, New Delhi who brought the ID Proof documents of Rohtash regarding landline No. 26143933 and also brought the application form for new telephone connection submitted by accused Rohtash s/o Chander Bhan r/o flat No. 132, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi.
PW-30 ASI Rishi Ram posted as Inter State Cell, Chankaya Puri at the relevant time. After registration of the FIR, investigation of this case was entrusted to him. He, after completion of the investigation, filed the charge sheet as well as supplementary charge sheets before concerned MM.
PW-31 SI Khem Chand, Head Assistant, HAG Branch, Crime & Railways, Kamla Market, New Delhi has proved the sanction for issuance of two hard disks.
SC No.49/09 Page 26 of 75PW-32 Sh. Sunil Tiwari, Works Manager, india Security Press, Nasik, has examined the postal stamps, non- judicial stamp papers, special adhesive stamps and butter paper in this case and has proved his report Ex. PW32/A. He has also exhibited the report of Currency Note Press Nasik dated 4.4.2007 as Ex. PW32/C, prepared by Mr. Kale, as Mr. Kale worked under him.
PW-33 Sh. Sushil Mohanta, Office Assistant, Calcutta Security Printers Limited, 12/478, Mc Robertganj, Kanpur, UP has appeared on behalf of Mr. Deepak Bhargava and proved report Ex. PW33/A prepared by Mr. Bhargav.
21. The accused in their statements u/s 313 Cr.P.C. Claimed innocence and denied each and every incriminating circumstance put to them. All of them stated that they were not involved in any illegal act and have been implicated falsely in this case. They also denied that any incriminating article has been recovered either at their instance or from their possession.
22. Accused Virender Kumar Rai further stated that he was dealing in supply of of first aid boxes from his rented premises bearing NO. WZ-391 Palam Village, New Delhi and had employed fifteen persons for the said business on commission basis. He claimed that he does not know any 'Chimtey wala Baba' or any other witness produced by the prosecution.
23. Accused Hari Narain stated that in the year 1999, he was doing work of polishing marble floor and owner of that house SC No.49/09 Page 27 of 75 namely Harish was involved in a CBI case who had kept his goods in a room adjacent to his room in Uttam Nagar. The CBI had asked him to be a witness in the case against Harish and on his refusal to do so, he was arrested and falsely implicated in a case by the CBI in which he has been acquitted. He further stated that later on the crime branch personnel summoned him to their office on 9.3.2007 and demanded money from him saying that he is involved in a CBI case. He was detained in the Crime Branch Office and implicated falsely in this case.
24. Accused Yagya Dutt Sharma, stated that he had received a phone call from accused Virender Kumar Rai on 10.3.2007 saying that he needs a new computer. He asked Virender to meet him near the temple and make him payment there. When he came out of the temple, Virender Kumar Rai called him again and asked him to reach Dwarka More. When he reached Dwarka More, he saw a green colour Skoda car having Haryana Registration Number. He went to a shop and in the meanwhile, three persons came out of the Skoda car, put him in the car and took him to the office of Crime Branch at Chankaya Puri, where he was later on arrested and implicated falsely in this case. He stated that he knew accused Virender Kuamr Rai for just six months before that date as he used to get his computer repaired from him. He stated that he did not know any other accused in this case.
25. The accused examined seven witnesses in their defence. DW-1 is Assistant Government Examiner, Questioned documents CFSL, Hyderabad, who was summoned by the accused SC No.49/09 Page 28 of 75 Raj Kumar to prove his defence.
26. DW-2 is a witness from 3rd Battalion, DAP Vikas Puri- 9, New Delhi who was summoned by accused Yagya Dutt Sharma to prove that he used to repair computers under the name and style of M/s. Mr. CAT Systems, Raj Nagar, Palam Colony, New Delhi.
27. DW-3 is a witness from MTNL. However, he had not brought the summoned record saying that it being more than one year old, could not be provided.
28. DW-4 is the witness from the office of General Manager, MTNL, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi who has proved the call details record in respect of landline telephone No. 23013003 and 23793715 from 09.03.2007 to 20.03.2007.
29. DW-5 also is a witness from the MTNL, Office of COC Janpath, New Delhi who has deposed that telephone Nos. 23013918, 23013941 and 23013908 were issued in the name of DCP Crime and Railways, Delhi Police and were installed at Crime Branch Office, Chankya Puri, New Delhi.
30. DW-6 is the Manager Regional, MTNL, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road and has deposed that on verification, he found that telephone Nos.23013918, 23013941 and 23013908 are installed in the office of Inter State Cell, Crime Branch, Chankya Puri, New Delhi.
31. Accused Yagya Dutt Sharma entered the witness box SC No.49/09 Page 29 of 75 himself as DW-7 and deposed that at the time of his arrest in this case, he was doing the job of computer repairing and networking under the name and style of M/s. M-CAT Systems which was operative from his residence. He proved his bills/cash memo books containing carbon copies of bills/invoices issued by him to his customers, as Ex. DW7/A.
32. I have heard ld. APP for the State as well as ld. Counsels for accused and have perused the entire oral as well as documentary evidence on record. Ld. APP as well as the ld. Defence counsels have taken me through the voluminous evidence recorded in this case.
33. Ld. APP submits that the prosecution has been successful in proving the guilt of all the accused and hence all of them, are liable to be convicted.
34. Sh. Dalip Singh, Advocate, ld. Counsel for the accused Rohtash submitted that no raid had been conducted at the premises of accused Rohtash and he had already been apprehended before the date of alleged raid. He submitted that it is apparent from the prosecution evidence that all the recoveries have been planted against accused Rohtash. He further submitted that the hand press machine, which is alleged to have been recovered from the IInd floor flat of accused Rohtash is so heavy that it is not possible to take it to the IInd floor. According to him, this machine also has been planted. He pleaded for the acquittal of the accused.
SC No.49/09 Page 30 of 7535. On behalf of accused Raj Kumar, his counsel Sh. J.S. Kushwaha, Advocate after taking me through the deposition of relevant witnesses, submitted that only a scanner has allegedly been recovered from the possession of the accused Raj Kumar. He submitted that no computer printing is possible from only scanner. He further submitted that the prosecution has not established any link between the accused Raj Kumar and the recovery of fake postal stamps. According to him, accused Raj Kumar is liable to be acquitted.
36. Sh. R.K. Naveen, Advocate appearing on behalf of accused Yagya Dutt Sharma submitted that the prosecution has at best established only the presence of this accused in premises No. WZ-391 A where he is stated to have been sitting in front of a computer. According to him, the prosecution has utterly failed to prove that the accused Yagya Dutt Sharma has played any role in printing and sale of counterfeit postal stamps. He submitted that the accused Yagya Dutt Sharma is liable to be acquitted.
37. Ld. Counsel Sh. P.K. Bhardwaj, Advocate appearing on behalf of accused Satpal, Hari Narain and Virender Kumar Rai advanced elaborate arguments and made vehement attempts in digging holes in the prosecution case and the evidence led by the prosecution. He submitted that the prosecution has failed to prove the rukka on the basis of which, the FIR is alleged to have been registered in this case and hence the very foundation of the case gets shaken. According to him, the evidence led by the prosecution is only in the nature of versions of the Police Officials itself and no public witness has been roped in at any point of raid SC No.49/09 Page 31 of 75 or investigation and, therefore, the prosecution case cannot be believed at all. He further submitted that there is a delay of about 7 to 8 hours in the registration of FIR in this case which makes the prosecution case doubtful.
38. He further drew my attention to the fact that the hard disk received back from the FSL was different from that which was sent to it for forensic examination and submitted that this only points towards the manipulations of the investigation in this case. He further submitted that different witnesses have given different addresses of the place of the raid. Some say it was house No. 391, other say that it was house No. 391A and yet other say that it was WZ-391 and, therefore, their being no clarity regarding the place of raid, the prosecution case fails. He further pointed out various discrepancies in the prosecution case such as Rs. 1000/- note was not recovered from accused Satpal at first instance after he was apprehended near Old Syndicate Bank Building, Palam; No site plan of place of raid by the Crime Branch Official has been prepared ; DD No. 3 and DD No. 4 regarding the departure of raiding party from the office has not been proved; Departure entries regarding each date on which investigation has been carried out in this case has not been proved; there is no evidence as to who deposited the pullindas containing the case property in various laboratories of Delhi, Chandigarh and Hyderabad; Mr. Jitender Kundu is not a computer expert and, therefore, he could not have examined a hard disk; There is no seizure memo on record regarding the genuine postal stamps purchased by HC Vijender from GPO and that Sh. S.N. Dondiyal is not an independent witness as he was called purposely by the crime SC No.49/09 Page 32 of 75 branch official to stand witness in a Police case against the accused, the proper course would have been to ask the Superintendent Post Office, Delhi to send any officer to aid the investigation and not to summon Sh. S.N. Dondiyal, by name.
Analysis of the evidence led by the prosecution and the submissions made by the ld. APP as well as ld. Defence Counsels:
39. PW-1 was the duty officer at PS Dwarka on 11.03.2007, who had registered the FIR in this case and he has proved the copy of the FIR as Ex. PW1/A. He further deposed that he had made endorsement on the rukka received by him, on the basis of which he had registered the FIR. However, it is observed that the rukka does not contain any endorsement of the duty officer. This witness in his cross examination has stated that the rukka on record Ex. PW1/DA is not the rukka which was received by him as he had made an endorsement on the rukka, received by him.
40. Though it is evident that the rukka Ex. PW1/DA does not bear the signatures of this witness, yet it is apparent that the contents of the FIR are verbatim similar to those of this rukka which implies that the FIR Ex. PW1/A has been registered on the basis of rukka Ex. PW1/DA. It appears that while registering the FIR, this witness PW-1 forgot to make any endorsement on the rukka, which has resulted in this situation. It also appears that PW-1, in order to cover up his negligence, deposed falsely that he had made an endorsement on the rukka and the rukka Ex. PW1/DA SC No.49/09 Page 33 of 75 is not the one which he had received. In view of the same, I do not find any illegality in the registration of the FIR in this case.
41. PW-3 deposed that he is residing in house No. WZ-391, Palam Village in which there is a shop bearing NO. 391B. He further deposed that there is a room above the aforesaid shop, which was earlier occupied by Virender Kumar Rai till 10.03.2007. He further deposed that on 10.03.2007, he had come to his house from the hospital at about 2 or 2.30 pm. and saw Police officials conducting proceedings there. He denied having any knowledge that Virender Kumar Rai was indulging in any illegal activity. He also deposed that Virender Kumar Rai has taken the said premises on rent for purpose of supply of first aid boxes and he had seen first aid boxes lying there.
42. PW-4 is owner of flat No. 132, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi and deposed that she had given this flat on rent to Rohtash Kumar in the year 2006 at a rental of Rs. 5,500/- per month. She had given the premises on rent for residential purposes but did not know for what purpose, it was being used by Rohtash Kumar.
43. PW-5 was the duty officer at Inter State Cell, Crime Branch, Chankya Puri, New Delhi on 10.3.2007 and had recorded DD No. 3 and DD No. 4, photocopies of which he proved as Mark PW5/A and Mark PW5/B respectively. He deposed that DD entries were recorded by ASI Chiranji Lal himself and are in his handwriting. It appears that since the DD entries were not filed alongwith the charge sheet, the photocopies of DD entries SC No.49/09 Page 34 of 75 produced by this witness were not exhibited and were marked as PW5/A and PW5/B. However, it also appears that this witness had brought the original DD Register alongwith him on that date and the photocopies of the DD No. 3, DD No. 4 were in consonance with the original DD Register. Therefore, I am of the opinion that DD No. 3 and DD No. 4 were sufficiently proved and it does not lie in the mouth of the accused to say that these DD entries have not been proved by the prosecution in proper manner.
44. As noted herein above, PW-8, PW-11 and PW-12 were the members of the raiding party and PW-10 was its Head. Other members of the raiding party have not been examined.
45. PW-8 has deposed that on 10.03.2007 at about 11 am when he was present in their office, a secret informer informed him that Virender Kumar Rai and Hari Narain are dealing in counterfeit postal stamps and Satpal sells the counterfeit stamps. The secret informer had also informed him that the computer operator namely Yagya Dutt Sharma manufactured the counterfeit postal stamps from a computer near Syndicate Bank Building, Palam Village, New Delhi and that Satpal @ Situ would come near Syndicate Bank Building at about 1.30 pm for selling the counterfeit stamps at half the price for which the code word is "Mange Ram ne bheja hai". He took the informer to ASI Chiranji Lal who made inquiries from the informer and after being satisfied about the genuineness of the information, took the informer to Inspector Jatinder and ACP Joy Tirkey. These two police officers, on getting satisfaction about the veracity of information, made preparation to conduct a raid. This witness further deposed that a SC No.49/09 Page 35 of 75 raiding party was formed comprising of ASI Chiranji Lal, ASI Devender, himself, HC Dilawar, HC Sanjay, HC Naseem, Constable Ved Prakash, Constable Shiv Kumar, Constable Sanjay, Constable Surender, Constable Devender and Constable Krishan.
46. The witness further stated that they reached the spot in two separate Govt. vehicles i.e. one Maruti Gypsy and a Quallis. Gypsy was being driven by HC Vijender and Quallis was being driven by Const. Anand. They left their office at 12 noon and reached the crossing in Palam Village at 12.45 p.m. ASI Chiranji Lal asked passers-by to join the raiding party, but they refused to do so. They left both their vehicles near the aforesaid roundabout and proceeded towards the Syndicate Bank building on foot. They were in plain clothes. He pretended to be a bogus purchaser of the counterfeit stamps and all of his belongings like purse, I.Card, money etc. were handed over by him to HC Raj Kumar and his personal search was conduced vide memo Ex.PW8/A. ASI Chiranji Lal gave him one thousand rupees for purchasing the counterfeit stamps vide memo Ex.PW8/B but he did not remember the number of the currency note. He was further instructed to place his hand on his head and give a signal in case the deal is finalised. Thereafter, Nakabandi was made near Syndicate Bank building and they waited there. At about 1.45 p.m. one person accused Satpal @ Seetu, whose name came to know after inquiry, came down from the stairs of house, whose number he did not remember. Secret informer pointed out towards the Satpal @ Seetu and thereafter, secret informer left the spot. Accused Satpal @ Seetu was carrying a pink colour polythene. This witness PW-8 HC Veer Pal made deal with accused Satpal @ Seetu. He SC No.49/09 Page 36 of 75 told him that he has been sent by Mange Ram (Mange Ram Ne Bheja Hai). Accused Satpal @ Situ did not make any further inquiry from him and gave him one sheet of Rs.20/- stamps and two sheets of Rs.10/- stamps. One sheet contained 50 stamps. The total stamps were valued at Rs.2,000/-. He gave Rs.1,000/- to accused Satpal @Situ. He gave signal to the raiding party by placing his hand on his head. All the members of the raiding party came to that place. He handed over the sheets of stamps to ASI Chiranji Lal. ASI Chiranji Lal prepared a Fard and took the sheets into his possession vide memo Ex.PW8/C bearing his signature at point A. ASI Chiranji Lal made inquiries from Satpal @ Seetu. Before that, he had put the sheets of stamps in an envelope and had sealed the same with the seal of CL. Satpal told that his associates are in a room in the building opposite the Syndicate Bank building. They took him to that room, which was on the first floor of the building. They opened the door of the room and gave their identity to the persons present in the room. There were three persons present in the room. Yagya Dutt Sharma was sitting in front of the computer. Hari Narain and Virender Kumar were sitting on a wooden 'Seti' near the adjacent wall. They were counting the sheets of stamps. Police party asked them to keep sitting wherever they are. Const. Devender was sent to bring both the vehicles from the roundabout to the building where they were present. One sheet of five rupee stamps and one sheet of Rs.20/- stamps were on the table in front of Yagya Dutt Sharma, which were taken into possession by ASI Chiranji Lal. Serial number was given to the sheets, found with the persons, present in the room. He could not tell the serial number given to the sheets. Hundred sheets were found with Virender Rai and 110 sheets were found SC No.49/09 Page 37 of 75 with Hari Narain. Some of the stamps were of Rs.10/- and some were of Rs.20/-. The Rs.1,000/- note which he had given to Satpal was recovered from him. Same was taken into possession and kept in an envelope sealed with the seal of CL. A Fard was prepared, which is Ex.PW8/D bearing his signature at point A. A pen drive was recovered from the pocket of Virender Rai. The same was taken into possession vide memo Ex.PW8/E. During inquiry, Virender Rai disclosed that they are running an office of MCD also from this premises. From the almirah of Virender Rai, three stamps of DDU Hospital, Chakrapalika Hospital and Food & Supply Department, seven file covers bearing the names of Delhi Police, MCD etc., Letter Heads, three attendance registers, Joining Letters, were recovered. All these were taken into possession vide a memo. A CD was taken out from the computer of Yagya Dutt Sharma. The same was kept in a polythene bag and sealed with the seal of CL. The Hard Disk of the computer was also taken out, same was kept in a polythene and sealed with the seal of CL. Meanwhile, ASI Chiranji Lal gave Const. Vijender Rs.1,500/- and sent him to GPO for bringing the genuine postal stamps. The computer monitor, CPU, Scanner, Keyboard, Printer and Mouse were wrapped in a cloth and sealed with the seal of CL. All the aforesaid articles were taken into possession vide memo Ex.PW8/F bearing his signature at point A.
47. The witness further deposed that Const. Vijender returned from GPO alongwith one sheet of genuine postal stamps of Rs.10/- and one sheet of Rs.20/- postal stamps and handed over the same to ASI Chiranji Lal. ASI Chiranji Lal compared the genuine postal stamps with the postal stamps recovered from the SC No.49/09 Page 38 of 75 rooms as well as from Satpal and found some differences between the two. The proceedings continued. ASI Rishi Ram reached the spot at about 11.30 p.m. ASI Chiranji Lal sent HC Vijender to the police station P.S. Dwarka alongwith Tehreer for registration of the FIR. ASI Rishi Ram recorded the statement of ASI Chiranji Lal and also prepared the site plan. ASI Chiranji Lal left the spot at 2 a.m. on the instructions of ASI Rishi Ram and thereafter, investigations were taken over by ASI Rishi Ram. HC Vijender returned from the police station at 2.15 a.m. alongwith copy of FIR and original Tehreer and handed over the same to ASI Rishi Ram, who wrote the FIR number on all the memos. They left the room at about 4 a.m. and went to the P.S. Dwarka alongwith four aforesaid persons. The material recovered from the room was deposited in the Malkhana and the aforesaid four persons were taken to ISC (Inter State Cell), Chankyapuri, New Delhi. He had also accompanied the four accused to Chankyapuri and his statement was recorded there. ASI Rishi Ram recorded the disclosure statements of the accused. Thereafter, the accused were produced before the concerned Magistrate at Patiala House Court, the next day, at about 2.30 p.m. Hari Narain and Virender Rai were sent to police custody and the other two were sent to judicial custody.
48. This witness PW-8 HC Veerpal identified the aforesaid four accused Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain, Satpal and Yagya Dutt Sharma present in Court. He also deposed that accused Satpal was also carrying a polythene bag with him which contained 38 sheets of Rs.10/- postal stamps and 29 sheets of Rs.20/- postal stamps. These also were taken into possession after SC No.49/09 Page 39 of 75 preparing memo Ex.PW8/G bearing his signature at point A. The genuine stamps brought from GPO were also taken into possession after preparing memo Ex.PW8/H bearing his signature at point A. The witness also identified all the aforesaid postal stamp sheets, the hard disk taken out from the computer on which Yagya Dutt Sharma was working, the computer monitor, CPU, Scanner, Keyboard, printer and mouse seized in his presence, the computer cables, the two CDs found on the computer table, when shown to him in Court.
49. In the cross examination, the witness deposed that at the time of raid at house No. WZ-391, they found accused Yagya Dutt Sharma sitting in front of the computer. He could not say whether or not the accused was printing the counterfeit postal stamps from the computer at that time. He deposed that the room was 10' x 10' and looked like an office. There was only one computer in the room. The room was 50 paces away from the Syndicate Bank Building. He was shown a photograph during his cross examination, conducted on behalf of accused Yagya Dutt Sharma wherein he identified the premises on which the raid was conducted and which has been encircled in red ink and marked at point A. He further deposed that they had asked the nearby shopkeepers to join the raiding party but all of them refused. They did not record the names and particulars of those shopkeepers. He did not know whether SI Chiranji Lal had sought refund of the sum of Rs. 1000/- from the Department, which he had given to this witness for purchase of fake postal stamps from accused Hari Narain. He deposed that it took them from 2 pm on 10.3.2007 to 4 am on 11.3.2007 to seize the material from the room. He did not SC No.49/09 Page 40 of 75 know to whom did ASI Chiranji Lal handover the seal after sealing the material. According to him, ASI Chiranji Lal prepared the documents at the spot before the IO ASI Rishi Ram came to the spot and thereafter the proceedings were conducted by ASI Rishi Ram at the spot. He deposed that ASI Rishi Ram wrote the FIR number on the documents prepared by ASI Chiranji Lal. He stated that he did not know any Subhash Chand, the owner of the property where the raid was conducted and in which the accused were found involved in counterfeiting the postal stamps. They had not informed the landlord of the premises at the time of raid. He did not recollect whether they had summoned the landlord of the premises during the raid. He did not recollect as to whom the keys of the premises were handed over after the raid.
50. PW-11 HC Vijender was also a member of the raiding party. Besides deposing about the constitution of the raiding party, pursuant to receipt of secret information by PW-8 and the circumstances in which raid was conducted, he further deposed that he had remained in vehicle whereas, other members of the raiding party were conducting the raid. At about 2.15 pm, he was summoned by ASI Chiranji Lal through constable Devender. ASI Chiranji Lal gave him Rs. 1500/- with the directions to purchase postal stamps in the denomination of Rs. 10/- and Rs. 20/- from Gol Dakkhana. He purchased the postal stamps from Gol Dakkhana and returned to the spot and handed over those postal stamp sheets to ASI Chiranji Lal. ASI Chiranji Lal compared the stamps, which he had brought, with the stamps, which were held in his hands, prepared a memo in this regard and seized the stamps vide seizure memo Ex. PW8/H. SC No.49/09 Page 41 of 75
51. He further deposed that at about 11.30 or 11.45 pm ASI Chiranji Lal handed over to him rukka with the directions to take it to the Police Station for Registration of the FIR. He took rukka to the Police Station and got the FIR registered. He returned to the spot at about 2.15 am in the night alongwith the original rukka and copy of the FIR and handed over the same to ASI Rishi Ram, who mentioned the FIR number on all the documents, which had already been prepared by ASI Chiranji Lal. Accused Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain, Yagya Dutt Sharma and Satpal were arrested in his presence by ASI Rishi Ram. He identified these four accused.
52. He further stated that they reached the Police Station Dwarka alongwith all the seized material at about 4 am and ASI Rishi Ram deposited the seized material in the Malkhana. The four accused were taken to the office of Inter State Cell at Chankya Puri where they reached at 6 am. In the cross examination, he stated that he had made a single combined entry in the log book of the Police gypsy, which he was driving, regarding trip from office to Palam Village, Palam Village to GPO, GPO to Palam Village back, Palam Village to PS Dwarka and PS Dwarka to Inter State Cell, Crime Branch office. He had made the entry in the log book after the registration of the FIR but did not hand over the copy of the Log book entry to the IO. He identified the rukka Ex. PW1/DA to be the same, which he had taken to the Police Station for registration of the FIR. He could not say why there is no endorsement of the duty officer on the rukka.
53. HC Sanjay Kumar, the another member of the raiding SC No.49/09 Page 42 of 75 party, has been examined as PW-12 by the prosecution. His examination in chief is more or less similar to that of PW-8 and hence need not be discussed here again. He, however, has proved the arrest memos of the accused Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain, Yagya Dutt Sharma and Satpal as Ex. PW12/A, Ex. PW12/B, Ex. PW12/C and Ex. PW12/D respectively and their personal search memos as Ex. PW12/E, Ex. PW12/F and Ex. PW12/G. He also proved disclosure statements made by these four accused as Ex. PW12/H,Ex. PW12/J,Ex. PW12/K and Ex. PW12/L respectively. He was associated in the investigation of this case on 14.03.2007 also. According to him, on that date, further inquiries were made from accused Satpal and Virender Kumar Rai in their office at Chankya Puri by ASI Rishi Ram and their supplementary disclosure statements were recorded which are Ex. PW12/M and Ex. PW12/N respectively. Accused satpal disclosed that he had been working in the office of one Puneet Bhalla, Advocate and he used to post the letters of said advocate after affixing fake postal stamps on those. He also disclosed that some of these letters have been received back in the office of the said advocate unserved and those were lying in the office of the advocate which he can get recovered.
54. He further deposed that accused Virender Kumar Rai had disclosed that they have been printing fake currency notes also, for which the required dye machine was brought by Hari Narain and one of its parts is lying with him. From their office, this witness PW-12 HC Sanjay, ASI Rishi Ram, Constable Shiv Kumar alongwith accused Satpal and Virender Kumar Rai went to the office of Sh. Puneet Bhalla, Advocate, in Gopala Tower at Rajendra Place. The said advocate was present in his office at that time and SC No.49/09 Page 43 of 75 he admitted that accused Satpal had been working for him. He handed over to them 54 envelopes which had been received back in the office unserved. Those were taken into possession by ASI Rishi Ram, converted into a pullinda and sealed with the seal of RR. They were seized vide memo Ex. PW7/A. Thereafter seal was handed over to him. Thereafter, they went to the house of Satpal in village Mangolpur. There accused Satpal got recovered four fake postal stamp sheets from an iron box in a room of his house. Two sheets were of Rs. 10/- postal stamps and two sheets were of Rs. 20/- postal stamps. All of them were sealed separately in two envelopes with the seal of RR and seized vide memo Ex. PW12/O. Thereafter they went to the shop of Virender Kumar Rai at Mubarakpur. There Virender Kumar Rai opened the shutter of the shop and from one of the drawers of the table, lying therein, he got recovered a piece of the brass metal. Its sketch was prepared by ASI Rishi Ram which is proved as Ex. PW12/P. The same was converted into a pullinda sealed with the seal of RR and seized vide memo Ex. PW12/Q. On this metal piece, words 'RBI' were written at three places on one side. There were five lines also at three places and numbers '100' were written at three places on other side of the same. All the aforesaid material was got deposited in the malkhana of PS Dwarka and thereafter they returned back to their office.
55. The witness identified all the case property, which was recovered from accused and at the instance of accused in his presence , when shown to him during his testimony. In the cross examination, he states that ASI Chiranji Lal had made departure entry in the office mentioning the names of all the members SC No.49/09 Page 44 of 75 comprising of the raiding party. He could not say whether any investigation had been conducted regarding the postal stamps worth Rs. 10 lacs sold by accused Satpal, as mentioned in his disclosure statement dated 11.03.2007. He did not recollect whether any public person or inmates of the house of Satpal was requested to join investigation when they had gone for the search in the house of accused Satpal. He stated that the polythene bag, which was being carried by accused Satpal in his hands was also seized. He did not know whether any public person was requested to stand as a witness to the recoveries effected from the room on the first floor of the house bearing No. WZ-391A. At the time when Satpal came out of the aforesaid house, he was standing at a distance of 15 to 20 paces from the same in a gali. Constable Ashok Kumar was with him and HC Veerpal was standing at a distance of about 15 to 20 paces from him. He further deposed that on 14.3.2004, accused Virender Kumar Rai was interrogated by ASI Rishi Ram between 8 am to 9 am. They reached the shop of Accused Virender Kumar Rai at Mubarak Pur, at 3 pm. At that time the shutter was having a lock. The lock was opened by accused Virender Kumar Rai, There was only one lock in the shutter. Inquiries were made about the owner of the shop from neighbouring shops but he could not be found. They remained at the shop for about one hour.
56. Another Member of the raiding party HC Dilawar Singh has been examined as PW-13. His deposition regarding the formation of raiding party, conduct of raid and seizure of articles from house No. WZ-391A, Palam Village is in sync with the testimonies of PW-8, PW-11 and PW-12 in this regard. He was also SC No.49/09 Page 45 of 75 associated in the investigation of this case on 16.3.2007 and 17.3.2007 also, which part of his deposition would be discussed in the latter part of the judgment.
57. This takes me to the testimony of the Head of the raiding party ASI Chiranji Lal, who has appeared as PW-10 for the prosecution. His examination in chief is similar to that of PW-8 and hence the same is not repeated here for the sake of brevity. He also proved the seizure memo in respect of postal stamps, recovered from accused Yagya Dutt Sharma as PW10/A, seizure memo in respect of postal stamps recovered from accused Hari Narain as Ex. PW10/B and seizure memo in respect of postal stamps recovered from accused Virender Kumar Rai as Ex. PW10/C. He further deposed that after the completion of the whole proceedings, he handed over his seal of CL to HC Sanjay. He prepared rukka Ex. PW10/D and sent it to the Police Station through HC Vijender for registration of the FIR. HC Vijender returned back alongwith the copy of the FIR and original rukka. ASI Rishi Ram also reached the spot to whom further investigation of the case had been entrusted. ASI Rishi Ram prepared the site plan of the spot at his instance. He handed over all the recovered material and documents to ASI Rishi Ram. He also handed over the four accused to him. He identified all the case property, when shown to him, during his testimony.
58. In his cross examination, PW-10 has deposed that there was no computer expert in the raiding party. He did not recollect whether any electric appliances were recovered from house No. 391A, First Floor, Palam Village. The computer found in SC No.49/09 Page 46 of 75 the house No. 391A, Palam Village was switched on and was working at the time when they reached there. No postal stamps were being printed on the printer at that time. The computer system was connected properly at that time. Whatever articles, he recovered from the room, regarding the computer system, were connected with the computer system. He deposed that he can operate a computer but has not obtained any diploma in the computer education. He knew the components of external system of the computer and named them during his testimony. He also has the knowledge of internal components of the computer. He had opened the computer and took out the hard disk from the same with the help of a screw driver which was found in the room. He also deposed that all the members of the raiding party were in civil dress and he had mentioned the same in the rukka. He had recorded DD No. 4 in the office before leaving the office for raid. In examination in chief, he has stated that code word to be mentioned to accused Satpal was "Mange ticket dena" but in cross examination, he clarified that the code word for purchase of fake stamps from accused Satpal was "Mange ne bheja hai".
59. In further cross examination, this witness PW-10 deposed that the rukka is in the handwriting of HC Vijender. HC Vijender had gone to the police station alongwith the same at about 11.40 pm and returned to the spot after 2 am in the night. He remained at the spot till 2 am. He further deposed that he was never posted at S/W district of Delhi and did not know whether there was post office adjacent to Syndicate Bank building Palam Village, at the time of raid. He had searched for the owner of the house No. 391A but could not found him. He did not recollect SC No.49/09 Page 47 of 75 whether plastic bag recovered from accused Satpal was also taken into possession by him or not. However, after having a look at the seizure memo Ex.PW8/G, he stated that the plastic bag had not been seized. According to him, all the memos in the case are in the handwriting of himself and HC Sanjay. Memos Ex. PW8/A, Ex. PW8/B, Ex. PW8/C and Ex. PW8/D and PW8/E are in the handwriting of HC Sanjay and PW8/F is in the handwriting of Constable Devender. All other memos are in his handwriting. He further deposed that the house in which they had conducted the raid, was at a distance of 100 to 150 yds from the round about in Palam Village where they had stopped and towards the North of Syndicate Bank Building. The remaining part of the cross examination, which is a very lengthy one, consists of suggestions given to him by the defence counsels, which he has denied.
60. I find the testimony of aforesaid five witnesses i.e. PW-8, PW-11, PW-12, PW-13 and PW-10 regarding the conducting of raid at premises No. WZ-391A, First Floor, Palam Village, New Delhi and recovery of fake postal stamps from from the said premises alongwith the computer system and also recovery of fake postal stamps from the possession of accused Satpal, consistent and absolutely trust worthy. No material contradiction appears in the deposition of these witnesses in respect of the recoveries of such huge quantity of incriminating material, nor has been same pointed out to me by any of the defence counsels. One argument which was pressed into service by all the defence counsels, very sternly, is that since no public witness was accompanying the raiding party, the depositions of police officials alone in this regard cannot be believed and hence prosecution SC No.49/09 Page 48 of 75 case must fail. The argument, though, seems to be attractive but lacks any merit and deserves to be rejected. Firstly, for the reason that there is no rule or law saying that the deposition of each police official in court is per se false and suspicious and cannot be relied upon. In my opinion, the testimony of a police witness, carries as much weight as that of a public witness, however, I hasten to add here that evidence of Police witnesses needs to be scrutinized very minutely in order to rule out any manipulation and fabrication. Further more, the head of a raiding party is required and expected to make a sincere effort to include public persons in the raiding party. He cannot be blamed, if no public person expressed his readiness and willingness to join the raiding party. It is a common state of affairs, particularly in Delhi that public persons are always reluctant and hesitant in associating themselves in the proceedings of any criminal case and for this reason, it becomes very difficult for the head of a raiding party or an investigating officer to include public witnesses in the raid or the investigation of a case. Same thing has happed in this case also. It has been consistently deposed by all the aforesaid witnesses that PW-10, the head of the raiding party, requested various public persons at various places to join the raiding party but all of them refused to do so giving various excuses. Therefore the raid cannot be faulted with merely because there are no public witnesses to the same. Moreover, the recovery of fake postal stamps sheets in huge quantity from the possession of accused Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain, Satpal and Yagya Dutt Sharma leaves no room for the suspicion that these may have been planted. Incriminating articles of following description are proved to have been recovered from the possession of aforesaid four SC No.49/09 Page 49 of 75 accused:-
1. One sheet of Rs. 20/- postal stamps and two sheets of Rs.
10/- postal stamps contained in envelop bearing sl. No. 1, which were recovered from accused Satpal.
2. 29 sheets of Rs. 20/- postal stamps contained in envelop bearing sl. No. 2, which were recovered from accused Satpal.
3. 38 sheets of Rs. 10/- postal stamps contained in the envelop bearing No. 3 which also was recovered from accused Satpal.
4. 100 sheets of Rs. 20/- postal stamps contained in envelop bearing serial No. 4 recovered from accused Virender Kumar Rai.
5. 20 sheets of Rs.10/- postal stamps and 90 sheets of Rs. 20/- postal stamps contained in envelope bearing srl. No. 5 recovered from accused Hari Narain.
6. 2 sheets of Rs.10/- postal stamps and 2 sheets of Rs. 20/- postal stamps contained in envelope bearing srl. No. 6 .
7. 10 sheets of Rs.10/- postal stamps contained in envelope bearing srl. No. 7.
8. 120 sheets of Rs. 10/- postal stamps contained in envelope bearing serial NO. 8.
9. 25 sheets of Rs. 20/- postal stamps contained in envelope bearing serial NO. 10.
10.One hard disk of Model 90644 DC bearing No. 11S36L8632ZJ16JKPO1549, which was taken out from the computer, on which accused Yagya Dutt Sharma was working.
SC No.49/09 Page 50 of 7511. Computer Monitor of make Samsung, CPU (bearing serial NO. 8BGF1 Model No. MMP Make Del), Scanner (Office Jet all in one, made in Malaysia No. 4110), Printer (bearing No. 1319A), Keyboard of make Intex bearing No. 15C3SHM10605125366 and one Mouse of make Samsung bearing No. PLEOMAX065120241769 seized in his presence and recovered from house No. WZ-391.
12.One black colour Pen drive having inscription IG on it, which was recovered from the pocket of accused Virender Kumar Rai.
13.One black colour power cable with adopter, one white colour CPU cable and one scanner cable recovered from the house No. WZ-391.
14.The two CDs of make HP bearing srl. Nos. L1915-10001 and L-1915-10004, recovered from the computer table in front of accused Yagya Dutt Sharma.
61. As would be seen in the latter part of this judgment that on forensic examination, the hard disc, pen drive and CDs were found containing various files and software used by these accused for manufacture of counterfeit postal stamps etc. It is highly improbable that the Crime Branch personnel would go all out to collect such large number of false postal stamps, computer hardware parts, computer software etc. to frame innocent persons in this.
62. At this stage it would be now relevant to turn to the testimony of the investigating officer ASI Rishi Ram who has been examined as PW-30. He deposed that on 10.3.2007, he was posted SC No.49/09 Page 51 of 75 at Inter State Cell Chanakya Puri as ASI and at about 9.30 pm, he was informed by the duty officer that a racket of persons involved in manufacturing of counterfeit postal stamps has been unearthed in Palam Village and the offenders have also been apprehended. He was further informed that the the investigation of this case has been entrusted to him.
63. He reached Palam Village at house No. RZ-391, Near Old Syndicate Bank Building where he found ASI Chiranjit alongwith other staff present. He also found present four accused namely Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain, Yagdutt Sharma and Satpal @ Situ. ASI Chiranjit told him that these accused have been manufacturing fake postal stamps and incriminating articles are being recovered from their possession. ASI Chiranji Lal also told him that rukka is being sent to the Police Station for registration of the FIR. At about 10.40 pm, HC Vijender took the rukka to the police station for the registration of the FIR. Thereafter, ASI Chiranji apprised him about the criminal activities of the accused. He also made inquiries from the accused, and they admitted their guilts. ASI Chiranji Lal handed over to him all the seizure memos and the sealed pullindas as well as mark-sheets. ASI Rishi Ram inspected the spot with the help of ASI Chiranji Lal and also prepared a rough site plan of the crime spot, which is Ex.PW30/A. He recorded the statement of ASI Chiranji Lal u/s.161 Cr.P.C. and relieved him. At about 2.15 a.m. HC Vijender returned from the police station after registration of the FIR alongwith original rukka and copy of FIR. He took the personal search of accused Yagya Dutt Sharma, Hari Narain, Virender Kumar Rai and Satpal vide memos Ex.PW12/G, Ex.PW12/F, Ex.PW12/E and Ex.PW12/J SC No.49/09 Page 52 of 75 respectively and arrested them vide arrest memos Ex.PW12/C, Ex.PW12/B, Ex.PW12/A and Ex.PW12/D respectively. Thereafter, he alongwith accused, other staff as well as the case property came to police station Dwarka and deposited the case property in Malkhana in accordance with the seizure memos. From the police station, he took the accused to Inter State Cell, Chankyapuri. He interrogated all the four accused in detail in Chankyapuri office. He recorded their separate disclosure statements. The disclosure statement of accused Virender Kumar Rai is Ex.PW12/H. The disclosure statement of accused Satpal @ Seetu is Ex.PW12/L. The disclosure statement of accused Hari Narain is Ex.PW12/J and disclosure statement of accused Yagya Dutt Sharma is Ex.PW12/K. He also recorded the statements of his staff, who were associated with him in the investigation. The accused were later on taken to RML Hospital for medical examination and thereafter were produced before the concerned Magistrate at Patiala House Court. Accused Yagya Dutt and Hari Narain were sent to JC, whereas he obtained PC remand of accused Satpal and Virender Kumar Rai for four days. He brought accused Satpal and Virender Kumar Rai to his office at Chankyapuri and kept them in Lock-Up.
64. In the office, ASI Rishi Ram again made detailed interrogation of these two accused. Accused Virender Kumar Rai did not cooperate during investigation, whereas accused Satpal @ Seetu initially cooperated and made a supplementary disclosure statement briefly, which is Ex. PW30/B but thereafter stopped.
65. He further testified that on 12.3.2007, he took the accused Virender Kumar Rai and Satpal to Palam Village. He made SC No.49/09 Page 53 of 75 inquiries in the village about the persons, to whom accused Virender Kumar Rai had provided government employment, but they could not be found. Thereafter, they returned to his office. On 13.3.2007 they again went to Palam Village. He met the landlady of House No.RZ-391, who told him that her husband is working in defence services. She assured him that whenever her husband would come on leave, she shall send him to meet him for investigation purposes. They returned to his office at Chankyapuri. On 14.3.2007, he again interrogated accused Virender Kumar Rai and Satpal in detail and recorded their supplementary disclosure statements, which are Ex.PW12/N in case of accused Virender Kumar Rai and Ex.PW12/M in case of accused Satpal. Pursuant to the disclosure statement of accused Satpal, he was taken to the office of Mr. Puneet Bhalla, Advocate, at Rajendra Nagar. Sh. Puneet Bhalla, Advocate, was present in the office at that time. He apprised him about the circumstances of the case and the arrest of accused Satpal. Sh. Puneet Bhalla told him that Satpal is a postal agent and used to collect registry envelopes from his office and got the same registered and posted from the post office. He further told him that some of the registry envelopes were received back undelivered. Sh. Puneet Bhalla produced before him 54 such registry envelopes which were received back in his office undelivered. ASI Rishi Ram took those in possession vide seizure memo Ex.PW7/A and recorded the statement of Sh. Puneet Bhalla, Advocate, u/s.161 Cr.P.C. Thereafter on the same day, they went to the house of accused Satpal in village Mangolpur, near Pathar Market. Four sheets of fake postal stamps in the denomination of Rs.20/- (two sheets) and Rs.10/- (two sheets) were recovered from his house. ASI Rishi SC No.49/09 Page 54 of 75 Ram took those sheets into possession vide seizure memo already Ex.PW12/O. Thereafter, they went to a Colony near village Mubarakpur at the instance of accused Virender Kumar Rai. There he pointed out to his office which was like a shop having a shutter in front. He got recovered a metal dye from the drawer of the table found inside the shop, which was used for manufacturing fake currency. ASI Rishi Ram prepared the sketch of the dye, which is Ex.PW12/D. Accused Virender Kumar Rai had disclosed that accused Hari Narain was also involved in manufacture of fake currency, who had already been sent to JC. ASI Rishi Ram applied for production warrant of accused Hari Narain for 15.3.2007. He deposited the case property in the Malkhana of P.S. Dwarka in accordance with the seizure memos.
66. As per the further deposition of this witness PW-30, he produced accused Virender Kumar Rai and Satpal before the concerned Magistrate on 15.03.2007. Accused Satpal was sent to JC and he obtained PC remand of accused Virender Kumar Rai till 17.3.2007. Accused Hari Narain had also been produced before the Ld. Magistrate and he was also sent to PC till 17.3.2007. He brought accused Virender Kumar Rai and accused Hari Narain to his office at Chankyapuri. He interrogated them in his office but they did not cooperate.
67. On 16.3.2007 he again interrogated accused Virender Kumar Rai and Hari Narain and recorded their supplementary disclosure statements. The disclosure statement of accused Virender Kumar Rai is Ex.PW30/C and the disclosure statement of accused Hari Narain is Ex.PW30/D. When he was about to leave SC No.49/09 Page 55 of 75 the office alongwith these two accused for further investigation, about 30/35 boys came to the office who had been cheated by accused Virender Kumar Rai. He made inquiries from them and recorded their statements. After sometime, Superintendent, Post Office, Sh. S.N. Daundhiyal also reached their office and ASI Rishi Ram recorded his statement. Thereafter, he alongwith the two accused, other staff and Sh. S.N. Daundhiyal went to flat no.132, second floor, Vasant Apartment, Vasant Vihar, in accordance with the disclosure statement of both the accused. The door of the flat was open and accused Rohtash was found sitting on the floor of the room inside the flat near a handpress machine which is used for perforation of postal stamps. Accused Hari Narain and Virender Kumar Rai stated that accused Rohtash is their associate. A large number of postal stamps were found in the room. ASI Rishi Ram took into possession the handpress machine as well the stamps found in the room vide seizure memo already Ex.PW6/A . The computer, printer, mouse, keyboard etc. found in the room were also taken in the possession by him vide aforesaid seizure memo. He had taken out the hard disk from the computer, put up the same into a transparent pullinda and seized vide aforesaid seizure memo. Two leap print pages also found in the room (Ex.P7) were also seized by him vide aforesaid seizure memo. About 20/21 cheques/bank drafts, one stamp of DDA and one stamp of Rohit Enterprises found in the room were also seized by him. These were put up in separate pullinda and seized by him. A large number of Kisan Vikas Patras were found in the drawer of a table in the outer room. 32 KVPs were in the denomination of Rs. 5,000/- and three were in the denomination of Rs.10,000/-. 13 more KVPs in the amount of Rs.10,000/- each were also found SC No.49/09 Page 56 of 75 which had been filled up. Four forms of the post office as well as five Pass Books were also recovered from the drawer. One of the pass books was in the name of one Sh. Bhupender showing a deposit of Rs.3 Lacs in it. Other pass books were blank. Sh. S.N. Daundhiyal told him that all the aforesaid postal stamps are fake and the KVPs have been stolen from different places. ASI Rishi Ram seized the Pass Books as well as KVPs separately vide seizure memo Ex.PW6/B. Thereafter, he relieved Sh. S.N. Daundhiyal after recording his statement. Certain more documents such as certificates in the name of Pankaj Gupta, a Passport in the name of Ladi Singh, Insurance Policies, Bank Account documents, five non judicial stamp papers (3 of Rs.1,000/- value, 1 of Rs.10/- value and 1 of Rs.100/- value) etc. were also found in the aforesaid drawer, which were seized separately vide seizure memo Ex.PW6/B. The three stamp papers bearing the value of Rs.1,000/- were found to be fake. Thereafter, he alongwith accused and the case property went to the house of accused Hari Narain at Laxmi Nagar, Jain Colony, Uttam Nagar, near Dwarka Mor. Accused Hari Narain got recovered an iron box from his house, which contained a plastic bag. On opening the same, three metal dyes were recovered. Out of these dyes, one had a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi, other had number "50" inscribed on it at three places and the third dye had the inscription of a secret thread of "RBI Bharat India" on it, which is usually found in currency notes. A tenant verification form, a GPA and copy of seizure memo of certain articles prepared by CBI in a case, in which accused Hari Narain had been previously arrested, were also found in the plastic bag. These also were seized by him vide seizure memo Ex.PW13/E. He had also prepared the sketches of the dyes which are Ex.PW13/D. He SC No.49/09 Page 57 of 75 arrested accused Rohtash vide arrest memo Ex.PW13/A and his personal search was conducted vide memo already Ex.PW13/B. He also recorded disclosure statement of accused Rohtash which is Ex.PW13/C. From there, they came to police station Dwarka. He deposited the case property in the Malkhana as per the seizure memos. Thereafter, they came back to their office at Chankyapuri. ASI Rishi Ram recorded the statements of HC Dilavar and Const. Ved Prakash.
68. PW-30 further deposed that at about 1 a.m. on 17.3.2007, he alongwith the three accused Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain and Rohtash reached Nakul Gali, Vishwas Nagar, Shahdara, at about 2 a.m. The door was opened by a person whom Hari Narain identified as accused Raj Kumar. One scanner of make Umax was found in the room of the house. Certain fake postal stamps were also recovered from the room. The scanner and the postal stamps were put up in the separate pullindas. The pullinda containing postal stamps was sealed. Both these pullindas were seized vide seizure memo already Ex.PW13/F. Accused Raj Kumar was arrested vide arrest memo already Ex.PW13/G and his personal search was conducted vide memo Ex.PW13/H. Thereafter, they came back to police station Dwarka, where he deposited the case property. ASI Rishi Ram alongwith the accused came back to his office at Chankyapuri. There, he interrogated accused Raj Kumar and recorded his disclosure statement which is Ex.PW13/J. He recorded the statements of the witnesses HC Dilavar and Const. Ved Prakash.
69. The witness further stated that during the course of SC No.49/09 Page 58 of 75 investigation, he had sent the postal stamps as well as the dyes recovered at the instance of the accused to Govt. Press, Nasik, for examination. As per the opinion of the Govt. Press, Nasik, these postal stamps as well as dyes were fake. He filed the opinion alongwith the Charge Sheet. The computers, hard disk and Pen drive recovered from the possession of the accused were sent to CFSL, Chandigarh for examination. As per report of CFSL, Chandigarh, the postal stamps, Pay rolls, appointment letters of NDMC, MCD, Delhi Police, Food & Supply etc. had been fed and were in the hard disk. Full Bio-Data of accused Yagya Dutt Sharma was found in the hard disk as well as in the Pen Drive. Certain postal stamps were sent to Govt. Press, Kolkata, for examination as they did not belong to Govt. Press, Nasik. As per the report of Govt. Press, Kolkata, these were found to be fake. The handpress machine as well as postal stamps recovered from flat no.132, Vasant Vihar, were sent to FSL, Rohini, for examination. The appointment letters and letter heads recovered from accused Virender Kumar Rai were sent to concerned department for verification and it was reported that all of those are fake. The registered sale deed in the name of accused Rohtash in respect of flat no.132, Vasant Vihar, was also found to be fake. The seller shown in the sale deed as Sundari Khan was examined and she told ASI Rishi Ram that she has not executed the sale deed. Accused Rohtash had obtained a landline telephone connection in the aforesaid flat no.132. He had submitted a rent agreement as proof of residence at the time of obtaining telephone connection, which also was found to be fake. The landlady Sundari Khan also told that she had not executed any rent agreement in favour of accused Rohtash but admitted that she had let out the aforesaid SC No.49/09 Page 59 of 75 flat to accused Rohtash. Accused Rohtash had forged a fake rent agreement showing some other person as landlord of the flat. The statements of the landlords of all the houses which were pointed out by the accused, were recorded by this witness.
70. He also deposed that he came to know that the KVPs which had been recovered from flat no.132, were the subject matter of a criminal case in P.S. Bariyatu, Ranchi. Certain KVPs which related to that litigations were handed over to the concerned IO after permission of the Court. Accused Virender Kumar Rai had been arrested in that case. Certain KVPs were found related to CBI case registered against accused Hari Narain and Rohtash and the information about the recovery of the same was given to CBI. This witness has correctly identified the accused, present in court, at the time of recording his testimony.
71. The witness identified all the aforesaid articles, material when shown to him during his Testimony. In the cross examination, he deposed that Sh. S.N.Dondiyal, reached their office at about 1 pm as he had been called by the inspector Jatinder Singh on phone. It had been discussed in the morning that since the case relates to postal stamps, a person from the postal department should be called. He had not sent any formal written communication to the postal department. He further deposed that they reached the flat No. 132, Vasant Vihar in search of accused Rohtash at about 1.30 pm. Accused Virender Kumar Rai and accused Hari Narain identified accused Rohtash saying that he is their associate. Accused Rohtash told him that the machine is used for perforation. There was a dye inserted in the machine, SC No.49/09 Page 60 of 75 which he got removed with the help of Rohtash. The dye was sealed separately. Machine was brought down from the flat in hands by four to five persons . No labour was called from outside for the said purpose. The machine was kept in the middle of the gypsy. He also deposed that he alongwith HC Sanjay kumar had gone to Chandigarh alongwith pen drive, hard disc, CDs, software etc. recovered from the accused to deposit the same at FSL Chandigarh.
72. He further testified that when they reached the house of accused Raj Kumar, the father of Raj Kumar and a lady were present in the house and remained present throughout the investigation proceedings. He had requested the neighbours to join the investigation but the neighbours refused to do so. Accused Raj Kumar opened the door himself when they knocked at it. They reached the house of Raj Kumar at about 2 am in the night intervening between 16.3.2007 and 17.3.2007. The postal stamp sheets recovered from the house of the accused Raj Kumar kept in a polythene bag, scanner was lying on the table. He had not sent the scanner for examination and did not lift any finger print from the house or the scanner. The spot was neither photographed nor videographed. He further states that the postal stamps worth Rs. 36,000/- were recovered from the house of accused Raj Kumar. He had checked the postal stamps sheet by sheet and thereafter prepared their seizure memo. The whole proceedings in the house were complete in about 1½ hours. During further cross examination, he reiterated that at the time of seizure of hand press machine from the premises of accused Rohtash, they had separated the dye from the same. He could not say whether a SC No.49/09 Page 61 of 75 copy of FIR Ex. PW1/A has been sent to the concerned Magistrate or not. He further deposed that when they had gone to the house of accused Satpal in Village Mangolpur, the brother of accused Satpal and two ladies were present in the house but they refused to join the investigations or to sign any document. According to him, the son of accused Hari Narain and one lady were present in his house at Laxmi Nagar, Jain Colony, Uttam Nagar, Delhi when they reached there. They were present throughout the raid in the house but refused to sign any document. He had mentioned this in his case diary. He had sent the blank hard disc alongwith the case property to CFSL, which he had got issued from HAG Branch of their office. The hard disc had been issued in the name of this case.
73. As per the testimony of PW-30, IO ASI Rishi Ram, the aforesaid postal stamps and dyes recovered at the instance of these four accused were sent to Government Press Nasik for examination. The computer hard disk and pen drive recovered from the possession of accused were sent to CFSL, Chandigarh for examination. Certain postal stamps were also sent to Government Press at Calcutta for examination as they did not belong to Government Press, Nasik.
74. The report Ex. PW32/B of India Security Press Nasik, shows that most of the postal stamps were forged and fake. The report also shows that some of the postal stamps were found to be genuine which removes any doubt regarding the fabrication or manipulation of the report as otherwise it would have been easier for them to report that all the stamps received by them are forged.
SC No.49/09 Page 62 of 75It had been further mentioned in the report that some of the postal stamps did not belong to that press hence were returned un- examined. It is those stamps which were later on sent to Calcutta, Govt. Press Kolkata for examination. As per the report received from Government Press, Kolkata, Ex. PW33/A, the stamps sent to it for examination, were found to be forged and the forgery has been done by scanning the stamps and printing the same through a colour laser printer.
75. The recovery of forged postal stamps, in such voluminous quantity, from the accused Yagya Dutt, Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain and Satpal itself guarantees the genuineness of the raid and recoveries. It is highly improbable that such huge quantity of incriminating material would be planted upon these accused.
76. The hard disk and computer CD, recovered from house bearing No. WZ-391A, Palam Vihar, were marked as H1 and CD-1 whereas the hard disk recovered from the computer in flat No. 132, Vasant Apartment, Vasant Vihar was marked as H2. It appears from the evidence on record that two blank hard disks were sent to CFSL, Chandigarh alongwith the hard disks H1 and H2 with the request to provide the mirror image of the H1 and H2 on the blank hard disks. The mirror images of hard disks H1 and H2 as provided by CFSL, Chandigarh were examined again by PW-28 Inspector Jatinder Singh in the Office of ISC Crime Branch. The contents of the hard discs, CD and pen dive, as found by the forensic examination, would be discussed in the latter part of the judgment.
SC No.49/09 Page 63 of 7577. The sketch of the dye recovered from the office of accused Virender Kumar is Ex. PW13/D and the sketch of dye recovered from the house of accused Hari Narain is Ex. PW12/D. Both these dyes were sent to Currency Note Press Nasik for examination, which has submitted the report Ex. PW32/C wherein it has been stated that all these metal plates are having resemblance with the watermark and security thread of Rs. 100/-, Rs. 50/- denomination notes and are supplementary material prepared with malafide intention for counterfeiting of Rs. 100 and Rs. 50 denomination MG notes. Therefore, it is manifest that the accused were also manufacturing counterfeit currency notes in addition to fake postal stamps.
78. The result of the forensic examination of the hard discs H1 and H2 as contained in report of the CFSL, Chandigarh, Ex. PW22/A, also supports the case of the prosecution. The hard disc H2 was found to contain digital images of scanned postal stamps of various denominations, which are shown in a print out Ex.PW22/B, annexed to the report Ex. PW22/A. The contents of the hard disc H1 would be discussed later. It would be pertinent to mention here that hard disc H2 was contained in the computer found in Vasant Kunj flat of accused Rohtash and the hard disc H1 was taken out from the computer found at premises No. WZ-391A, Palam Village.
79. The recovery of computer containing hard disc H2, computer parts, fake postal stamps of various denominations, stolen Kisan Vikas Patras, forged post office saving account pass books and a hand press machine used for perforation of the fake SC No.49/09 Page 64 of 75 postal stamps, from the possession of accused Rohtash in flat No. 132, Second floor, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Kunj cannot be doubted at all, as the same has been done in presence of an independent Government official Sh. S. N. dhaundiyal, ASP ( Vigilance), Office of Chief Postmaster General, Delhi Circle, Meghdoot Bhavan, New Delhi, who has been examined as PW-6. He deposed that a telephonic call was received by his senior officer to send an official from Department of Posts to confirm whether the postal stamps recovered by Crime Branch were fake or not. He reached Crime Branch Office at about 1.30 pm or 2 pm and found accused Virender Kumar Rai and accused Hari Narain under arrest. He alongwith IO ASI Rishi Ram, two or three police officers and the two accused reached flat No. 132, Second Floor, Vasant Apartments where a hand press machine used for perforation was found in one room on which Rohtash Tanwar was working. According to him ten sheets of postal of Rs. 10/- denomination, 60 sheets of postal stamps of Rs. 20/- denomination and some more postal stamps of Rs. 5/- denomination were found in the room and all of these were fake. Half of the stamps were already perforated and half were yet to be perforated. He further deposed that a computer, a CD, printer alongwith full apparatus was found in the outer room of the flat. There was a wooden almirah adjacent to the computer from which 32 KVPs in the denomination of Rs. 5000/- each having 45 BB series number and 16 KVPs in the denomination of Rs. 10,000/- having 63 CD series were taken out. Certain blank post office saving bank pass books were also found in the almirah. He also deposed that the KVPs of 45 BB series had been reported to be lost and stolen in transmission between India Security Press Nasik and Gauhati and SC No.49/09 Page 65 of 75 KVPs of 63 CD series were reported to have been stolen from Ranchi Medical College Hospital.He furthe deposed that all these articles were seized by the IO in his presence vide seizure memos Ex. PW6/A and Ex. PW6/B and thereafter they returned to the ofice of Crime Branch, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi. He identified all these articles and the hand press machine, when shown to him.
80. In his cross examination, PW-6 deposed that information regarding counterfeiting of stamps was given by the crime branch to the then Chief Post Master General, who summoned Director General Postal Service (Delhi Circle) in this regard and the director then deputed him for the job i.e. to assist the Crime Branch. He had not gone to the office of Crime Branch before in connection with any other such case. He further stated that accused Rohtash was present alone in the flat and he did not show any resistance at all. The handpress machine was lying on the floor of the flat and was fixed to the floor and IO had taken out one dye from the said machine and sealed it separately.
81. It was argued by ld. Counsel for accused Rohtash that PW-6 is a stock witness of the crime branch and hence his testimony should not be relied upon. The argument is sans any merit. There is nothing in the testimony of PW-6 to suggest that he was a stock witness of the Crime Branch. It is evident from his testimony that he was not directly approached by the Crime Branch personnel. He was deputed for the job by his Director on the directions of Chief Post Master General, who had received the request from the Crime Branch Office. In my opinion, the evidence of PW-6 is absolutely reliable and trustworthy.
SC No.49/09 Page 66 of 7582. The hand press machine recovered from the flat of accused Rohtash, as aforesaid, and the fake postal stamps recovered from his flat were sent to FSL, Rohini, which vide its report Ex. PX has opined that all these stamps have been perforated from the said machine. It is thus amply clear that accused Rohtash was actively involved alongwith other accused in manufacture and sale of counterfeit postal stamps.
83. It was also argued by ld. Counsel for accused Rohtash that the handpress machine has been planted upon him which is evident from the testimonies of PW-6 and PW-30. He alleged that these two witnesses have deposed that the dye found fitted in he hand press machine in the flat of accused Rohtash was sealed separately whereas when the machine was shown to these witnesses in court, the dye was fitted in it and it was not separate. I do not find any irregularity or illegality in it. As discussed hereinabove, the handpress machine as well as dye were sent to FSL Rohini. Obviously these were unsealed in the FSL and from there may have been returned in unsealed condition. The FSL report Ex. PX does not mention that the machine and the dye has been returned to the Crime Branch separately sealed.
84. The involvement of accused Raj Kumar in the racket is ex-facie established from the fact that his house was raided pursuant to disclosure statement of accused Virender Kumar Rai and Hari Narain and fake postal stamps worth Rs. 36,000/- was recovered from his house. Nothing has been brought on record as to why Crime Branch personnel would be interested in implicating him falsely in this case. The recovery of fake postal stamps in such SC No.49/09 Page 67 of 75 enormous quantity cannot be doubted at all as it is almost impossible to plant counterfeit postal stamps of such huge worth.
85. From the deposition of PW-14, PW-15, PW-16, PW-17,PW-18, PW-19, PW-20, PW-21, PW-23, PW-24 and PW-25, it gets proved that accused Virender Kumar Rai has been running a fake parallel office of Food and Supplies Department, MCD etc. from premises No. WZ-391A, Palam Village. He used to collect huge money from innocent citizens like these witnesses on fake representations that he would get them employment in Govt. Departments like DDA, MCD, Food and Supplies Department etc. and also issued them fake appointment letters. He even engaged them in some petty jobs saying that these are Govt. jobs and paid hem some salary for certain period in order to gain their confidence. He had given wide publicity to his maneuvers by getting posters pasted in this regard at various public places like railway stations, Bus depots etc. in Delhi and Haryana. Rubber stamps of charak Palika Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital CMO, Department of Food Supply circle 22, one ready made rubber stamp kit, three food and supply registers containing enrollments of different months of various employees, blank letter heads of Department of Food & Supplies, Delhi Police, New Delhi Municipal Council, DDU Hospital, some joining letters as well as interview letters, blank formats of pay roll, 78 original marks sheets and degrees were recovered from his almirah in premises No. WZ-391A, Palam Village, New Delhi. Exactly these documents were found to be fed in the hard disc H1, CD and pen drive recovered from the possession of Virender Kumar Rai, as mentioned in report Ex. PW22/A of CFSL Chandigarh. The data in SC No.49/09 Page 68 of 75 the hard disc H1, CD and the pen drive was also analysed by PW28 Inspector Jitender of Crime Branch and he also found similar pages fed, loaded and saved therein. Of course he did not analyse the original hard disc but only its mirror image sent back by the CFSL Chandigarh.
86. The report prepared by PW-28 after the examination of Hard Disc H1, CD and the Pen Drive, as mentioned herein above, is very detailed and extensive. He has taken out print outs of almost all the files contained in these computer accessories which are 234 in number. According to him, the hard disc H1 had two user names i.e. Sharmaji and Virender and also contained the resume of Yagya Dutt Sharma. The hard disc, also contained letter heads of Food and Supplies, Delhi Police, MCD, Charak Palika Hospital, photo shop images of Rs. 50/- Indian Currency note bearing the image of Gandhi mark. According to him, the hard disc H2 consisted of various images of Indian Postal Stamps and the Pen Drive contains lots of formats of employment record of MCD and Food Supplies as well as Pay rolls of various employees. There is no difference or contradiction between the report Ex. PW28/A prepared by PW-28 and the report Ex. PW22/A submitted by CFSL, Chandigarh in respect of aforesaid hard discs, CD & Pen Drive except that the report Ex. PW28/A is very detailed and explanatory in nature.
87. The argument raised by the ld. Defence counsel that PW-28 was not a computer expert and, therefore, his report cannot be relied upon, is without any substance as it has come in the cross examination of this witness that he has undergone the training of CDTS (Central Detective Training School) course at SC No.49/09 Page 69 of 75 Chandigarh and had experience of investigating cyber cases for the last six years.
88. It was also argued by ld. Defence counsels that the hard discs examined by PW-28 are not the original hard discs and these appear to be planted hard discs for the reason that nothing has come out in the testimony of prosecution witnesses about the source of these two hard discs. The argument also deserves to be outrightly rejected. From the testimony of PW-30 and PW-31 it is manifest that PW-30 submitted an application on 11.4.2007 (Ex. PW31/A) to HAG Branch, Crime and Railways Kamla Marg. New Delhi for supply of two 40 GB computer hard discs in connection with the investigation of this case. The request was sanctioned vide sanction note dated 19.04.2007 (Ex. PW31/B) which is under the signatures of then HAG, ACP and Additional DCP. Two 40 GB hard discs were supplied to PW-30 by HAG branch on 18.4.2007 vide entry at serial No. 37 of Stock Register for the year 2007-08 (Ex. PW-31/G) and these were received by constable Anand Singh. Thereafter it seems that the HAG Branch placed an order on SBI Consumer Cooperative Store Ltd. for supply of two 40 GB computer hard discs in lieu of hard discs which had been supplied to PW-30. The stock register of the HAG Branch produced by PW-31, the photocopy of the relevant pages of which are Ex. PW31/D1, show that five 40 GB Hard discs were available in the office on 02.03.2007. The controversy had been created by reply Ex. PW30/DA received by the father of accused Raj Kumar to an application under Right to Information Act from the Public Information Officer Crime Branch, Delhi saying that no 40 GB hard disk had been issued from the year 2007 onwards. The reply SC No.49/09 Page 70 of 75 mentions that it has been found on checking of stock register. However, it is not clear from the said reply as to stock register of which Branch or Department had been checked before giving such reply. To the contrary, the documents produced by PW-31, as noted herein above, clearly show that two 40 GB hard discs were supplied to PW-30 on 18.04.2007. Hence, I do not find any material on record to doubt the source from which PW-30 had obtained two blank 40 GB hard discs which he had sent alongwith hard discs H1 and H2 to CFSL, Chandigarh for obtaining the mirror images of hard discs H1 and H2. The mirror images of hard discs H1 and H2 provided by the CFSL Chandigarh were later on examined in detail by PW-28 and gave his report which has already been discussed.
89. The net result of the aforesaid discussion is that all the six accused were, in pursuance to a well hatched conspiracy, manufacturing and selling counterfeit postal stamps and each of them were found in possession of these counterfeit postal stamps. They had their secret hideouts at WZ-391 A, Palam Village, New Delhi and flat No. 132, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. Instruments for manufacture of counterfeit postal stamps such as computer, its accessories, printer, hand press machine used for perforation etc. were recovered from these two hide outs of the accused. Further accused Virender Kumar Rai and accused Hari Narain were also engaged in manufacture of fake currency notes and metal dyes used for the said process were recovered at their instance. Besides this, accused Virender Kumar Rai was also running a fake parallel office of Food & Supplies, MCD etc. and cheated various innocent young boys on the pretext of providing SC No.49/09 Page 71 of 75 them Govt. jobs. However, prosecution has failed to prove charge u/s 468 IPC against accused Rohtash as no witness has deposed about having recovered any forged document from his possession.
90. It is evident that the counterfeit postal stamps used to be designed and prepared at the premises No. WZ-391A, Palam Village and perforation of the stamps used to be done by a hand press machine at flat No. 132, Vasant Apartments, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi which had been taken on rent by accused Rohtash. Accused Satpal used to sell the counterfeit stamps. Though the role assigned to accused Raj Kumar that he was the computer expert and he used to design the postal stamps on the computer, has remained to be proved by the prosecution but his complicity in the whole conspiracy is writ large from the fact that he was named by the other accused in their disclosure statements and in pursuant to those disclosure statements, he was arrested from his residence alongwith a big haul of counterfeit postal stamps, the possession of which, he has failed to explain.
91. It is true that the house number of the premises at Palam Village, which was raided by the crime branch in the instant case, has been given differently at different places by the witnesses. Some says its was house No. 391, other says it was house No. 391A and yet others have said that it was WZ-391. It was submitted on behalf of accused that there being no clarity regarding the actual place of raid, the prosecution case should fail. In my opinion, non mentioning the house number correctly by some of the witnesses, of the prosecution cannot be taken so seriously as to shake the foundation of the case. It has to be kept SC No.49/09 Page 72 of 75 in mind that the raid has taken place in the year 2007 and the witnesses were called out to depose in the court in the year 2011 i.e. more than four years after the raid. It is not humanly possible to remember the minutest details including the house number in which the raid was conducted for such a long time as four years and errors are bound to happen in some manner or the other. The prosecution case does suffer from some minor discrepancies but I do not see any material contradiction in the testimony of any of the prosecution witnesses which may fatally affect the prosecution case.
92. It is also true that the prosecution has to prove charges against accused beyond reasonable doubt. The reasonable doubt, in the words of Mr. Justice Sabhya Sachi Mukherjee in Gurbachan Singh vs. Satpal Singh, 1991, SCC 445 is simply the degree of doubt which would permit a reasonable and just man to come to a conclusion. Reasonableness of doubt must be commensurate with the nature of offence to be investigated. The exaggerated devotion to the rule of benefit of doubt must not nurture fanciful doubts or lingering suspicions and thereby destroy social defence.
93. The standard of proof must be the standard adopted by a prudent man, which may vary from case to case. It is the duty of the court to satisfy its conscience whether the doubts raised by the defence are merely the outcome of emotional response or are actual arising from the evidence on record or from the lack of it. Doubts should not be merely imaginary or trivial but must grow out of the evidence in the case. In the instant case, I find SC No.49/09 Page 73 of 75 overwhelming evidence regarding the complicity of the accused in hatching the conspiracy for manufacture, use and sale of counterfeit currency as well as counterfeit postal stamps. The recovery of enormous quantity of counterfeit stamps as well as the computer hardware, computer software and other machines used for preparation of the counterfeit postal stamps and counterfeit currency notes remove all possible doubts nurtured and raised by the accused in the prosecution case. It would be a traversity of justice to reject the evidence which is exfacie trust worthy and reliable and not based upon mere conjectures.
94. Giving benefit to the accused in the present case, of the minor discrepancies would amount to total miscarriage of justice. As quoted by Viscount Simon, "a mis carriage of justice may arise from the acquittal of the guilty, no less than from the conviction of the innocent", every care should be taken by the Courts, not to get sidetracked by the trivial and merely possible doubts exaggerated by the defence in a particular case, which are not supported by the evidence on record.
95. In view of the aforesaid discussion, I find that prosecution has been able to prove its case beyond any reasonable doubt. All the six accused are liable to be convicted and are hereby convicted as under:-
(i) All the accused are convicted for having committed the offences punishable u/s 255/259/260/420/120B IPC
(ii) Accused Virender Kumar Rai, Hari Narain, Yagya Dutt Sharma and Rohtash are also convicted for having SC No.49/09 Page 74 of 75 committed the offence punishable u/s 256 IPC.
(iii)Accused Satpal is also convicted for having committed offence punishable u/s 258 IPC.
(iv)Accused Virender Kumar Rai is also convicted for having committed offences punishable u/s 170/420/468/473 IPC.
(v) Accused Virender Kumar Rai and Hari Narain are further convicted for having committed offences punishable u/s 489D as well as u/s 489D/120 B IPC.
Announced in open (VIRENDER BHAT)
Court on 16.08.2012 A.S.J. :Dwarka Courts
New Delhi.
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