Delhi District Court
3.Title :State vs . Kulwant Rai Kapila. on 10 February, 2012
IN THE COURT OF SHRI RAJESH MALIK: MM (WEST) -05
TIS HAZARI COURTS : DELHI
JUDGMENT
1.FIR No. :933/99 2.Unique Case ID No. :R0182882000 3.Title :State Vs. Kulwant Rai Kapila. 3(A).Name of complainant :Arvind Kumar Ray, S/o Sh. Jagdish Ray, R/o H-284, Palam Colony, Raj Nagar gali no. 8, New Delhi 3(B).Name of accused :1) Kulwant Rai Kapila, S/o Sh. Jaggan Nath Kapila, R/o 5-B8, Vishnu Garden, Delhi (already expired). 2) Vinod Chabra S/o Om Parkash R/o C-369, J.J. Colony, Khyala. 3) Charan Lal S/o Bansi Dhar, R/o C-72, J.J.Colony, Khyala. 4) Ashok Sharma S/o Budh Ram R/o WZ-21 E, Sant Garh, Delhi. 5) Radhey Shyam S/o Madho Prashad, R/o 5A/26, Vishnu Garden, Delhi. 4.Date of institution of challan :27.04.2000 5.Date of Reserving judgment :10.02.2012 6.Date of pronouncement :10.02.2012 7.Date of commission of offence :13.11.1999 FIR No. 933/99 1/7 8.Offence complained of :U/s 147/149/295A/296/34 IPC 9.Offence charged with :U/s 147/149/295A/296/34 IPC 10.Plea of the accused :Pleaded not guilty 11.Final order :Acquitted BRIEF REASONS FOR THE DECISION OF THE CASE:-
1. In brief, the case of the prosecution is that on 13.11.1999 at about 7:20 PM at C-Block Park, J.J. Colony, Khyala, Delhi, all the accused persons namely, Kulwant Rai Kapila, Vinod Chabra, Charan Lal, Radhey Shyam and Ashok Sharma being the members of an unlawful assembly and in prosecution of common object of such assembly to insult and disturb the religious meeting of Christians in order to outrage the religious feelings of Christian missionaries with the deliberate and malicious intention voluntarily caused disturbance to the assembly/meetings of Christian missionaries who were engaged in the convincing of principles of Christian missionaries. Accordingly, the FIR No.933/99 was registered and after conclusion of investigation, all the accused persons were charge-sheeted for the offence under Section 147/149/295A/296/34 IPC.
2. After hearing the accused persons and the prosecution, charge-under Section 147/149/295A/296/34 IPC was framed against all the accused persons to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
3. During trial, the accused Kulwant Rai Kapila was expired and proceedings against him was abated vide order dated 25.11.2009.
4. In order to prove its case, the prosecution has examined six witnesses.
PW-2 is a complainant. He deposed that he is a priest. He FIR No. 933/99 2/7 has been giving the messages of Lord Jesus to the public. Though he does not remember the exact date but in the month of November,1999, they arranged a religious gathering at C-Block Park, J J Colony, Khyala and he along with the other persons namely Kanak Raj, S.Johan and sister Vandana were present over the stage. Around 30 persons were present at the gathering and they were doing praises and worship. Suddenly, 30 to 35 persons entered into the pandal and one amongst them forcibly climbed over the stage and that person forcibly snatched the mike and after snatching, he used abusive language. Thereafter, the assailants started giving beatings to them. The assailants burnt the books and booklets. The assailants threatened them to leave the pandal and those persons damaged the pandal, booklets etc. After some time, police came at the spot and recorded his statement Ex.PW2/A. On the basis of his statement, IO got the present case registered and seized the booklets lying at the place of occurrence vide seizure memo Ex.PW2/B. IO also seized the burnt booklets and other material vide seizure memo Ex.Pw2/C. He did not name any of the assailants in his statement to the IO. He further deposed that he cannot identify whether the accused persons present in the court were the assailants/offenders or not.
PW-3 deposed that he is a priest. He arranged a religious gathering at C Block park for 12.11.99, 13.11.99 and 14.11.99 and on 11.11.99 and 12.11.99 the said gathering was concluded successfully. On 13.11.99, the gathering started at about 7:00 pm and after its start, he went to PS Tilak Nagar for contacting the police for making arrangements in respect of the function. He came back to the spot at FIR No. 933/99 3/7 about 8:00 pm and saw police present at the spot. The gathering was in propelled condition and the booklets were burning. He further deposed that he does not know as to what happened and as to who disrupted the function.
PW-4 deposed that on 12.11.99, Pastor S. John arranged for a gospel meeting in a J.J. Coloney, Khyala. He was invited for that meeting. He went there just before the commencement of the meeting. A number of persons were gathered there. Some people approached him and asked him about the purpose of the meeting. He replied that they were going to preach about Jesus Christ. Thereafter, they asked him whether a job is offered on becoming a Christiane. He replied in negative. Thereafter, the meeting was started. However, the pastor, who arranged the meeting, was not there. He and Pastor Arvind Roy started prayers and songs. Just after the songs, an unknown person reached the dias and asked him to give him mike to speak. He requested him to let the prayers and songs finished and he will give him the mike. But he did not agree and snatched the mike. That person started shouting on the mike, making allegations that they are converting the Hindus into Christians by paying money and they should not be allowed to do this. On the instigation of that person, who is not present in the court amongst the accused persons, the crowd started breaking the drums and musical instruments. When the crowd was destroying the instruments, one person came from behind and slapped him. That person also slapped Pastor Arvind Roy. Then the crowd started burning bible books and other text of Christianity. Again, the same person who earlier slapped him came and slapped him again.
FIR No. 933/99 4/7That person told him that "you being an old man should go away from here". When he was leaving the place someone came and snatched his bible. He further deposed that he can not identify whether that person is an accused or not.
PW-6 deposed that on 13.11.99, he was posted as IC PP, Khyala. On that day, he received an information vide DD No. 20 regarding the incident and reached the spot i.e C Block, DDA Park, J.J. Coloney, Khyala. There Arvind Kumar Roy and his associates were present. There was a tent which was extirpated. Some text books related to Christianes were lying scattered burned. Some of them were unburnt. He recorded the statement of Arvind Roy and prepared rukka already Ex. PW-2/A. He sent the rukka to PS Tilak Nagar through Ct. Jasbeer who got the FIR No. 933/99 registered on the basis of said rukka and came back to the spot alongwith original rukka and copy of FIR. In the meantime, he inspected the scene of crime and prepared site plan Ex. PW-6/A at the instance of complainant Arvind Roy. He also seized some text books relating to Christiane's religion vide seizure memo Ex. PW-2/B. After arrival of the Ct. Jasbeer, he seized burnt hand bills and pamphlets vide seizure memo Ex. PW-2/C. The seal after use was handed over to Ct. Jasbeer. Thereafter, he arrested the accused Kulwant Rai(already expired) vide arrest memo Ex. PW-6/B in the wee hours of the next day i.e 14.11.99. Personal search of the accused Kulwant Rai (already expired) was conducted vide memo Ex. PW-6/C. Thereafter, he went to PS Tilak Nagar and deposited the case property in malkhana. On the same day, the accused Vinod Chhabra was arrested vide arrest memo Ex. PW-6/D FIR No. 933/99 5/7 and personal search of the accused Vinod Chhabra was carried out vide memo Ex. PW-6/E. Thereafter, he searched for the remaining accused persons but they could not be found.
PW-5 deposed that on 30.11.99, he was posted as IC PP Khyala, PS Tilak Nagar. On that day, the case FIR No. 933/99 was handed over to him for further investigation. He had gone through the file and found that two accused namely, Kulwant Rai Kapila and Vinod Chhabra were already arrested and rest of the accused persons were to be arrested. On 02.12.99, the accused Charan Lal came to the police post and shown him the order regarding the anticipatory bail. He was arrested accordingly and released on bail as per the order of the court. On 19.12.99, the accused Radhey Shyam Gupta and Ashok Sharma came to the police post and shown him the order regarding the anticipatory bail. They were arrested accordingly and released on bail as per the order of the court. Thereafter, he handed over the case file to SHO Tilak Nagar.
5. Now, the stage has been set to examine the case of the prosecution to see whether it inspires confidence and passes the test of probability, credibility and trustworthiness.
6. The perusal of the testimonies of all these witnesses shows that the eye witnesses failed to identify the accused persons in the court. They specifically deposed that they could not identify whether the person who instigated the crowd to vandalize the stage is present in the court or not. All the witnesses were cross examined by Ld. APP but the identity of the accused persons being the real offenders could not be established.
FIR No. 933/99 6/77. Since, the identity of the accused persons could not be established, therefore, the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused persons. Accordingly, all the four accused persons namely, Vinod Chabra, Charan Lal, Radhey Shyam and Ashok Sharma are acquitted in case FIR no. 933/99, PS Tilak Nagar.
File be consigned to record room after due compliance.
ANNOUNCED IN THE OPEN (RAJESH MALIK)
COURT ON 10.02.12 MM (WEST)-05/ NEW DELHI
FIR No. 933/99 7/7