Delhi District Court
State vs . 1) Rafitullah @ Salman, on 4 October, 2018
SC No.56544/2016
IN THE COURT OF MS. SMITA GARG,
ADDITIONAL SESSIONS JUDGE FAST TRACK COURT,
WEST DISTRICT, TIS HAZARI COURTS, DELHI.
Sessions Case No.: 56544/2016
CNR No.DLWT010009452015
FIR No. : 698/2015
Under Sections : 147/148/307/149 IPC
Police Station : Hari Nagar
State Vs. 1) Rafitullah @ Salman,
S/o Barkatullah,
R/o Jhuggi behind Kali Mandir,
Gol Market, Near Bangla Sahib,
New Delhi.
Also at:
Jhuggi No. 722, Rama Road Rakhi
Market, Zakhira, Moti Nagar, West
Delhi, Delhi110015
2) Ravi
S/o Sh. Birbal
R/o 9/39, Old Chandrawal,
Majnu Ka Tila, Civil Line, Delhi
3) Ajay
S/o Sh. Saran
FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 1/11
SC No.56544/2016
R/o H. No. 428, Metro Vihar Phase2,
Holambi Kalan, PS Shahbad Dairy,
Narela, Delhi.
Also at:
1628, Block B, Phase2, Metro Vihar,
Holambi Kalan, Delhi110082
4) Ashu
S/o Sh. Raj Kumar
R/o H. No. 185, Village Nangli Puna,
Near NDPL, Gali No. 7, P.S Swaroop
Nagar, Delhi
5) Arvind
S/o Sh. Virender,
R/o H. No. 112, Balmiki Panna,
Village Mitraun, New Delhi110043.
Date of committal of case : 17.09.2015
Date of pronouncement of Judgment : 04.10.2018
JUDGMENT:
1. All the five accused persons are facing trial for the commission of offences punishable under Sections 147/148/307 read with Section 149 IPC on the allegations that on 12.03.2015 at about 8:15 pm while being lodged in ward no. 9 of Central Jail No. 4, Tihar as under trial prisoners, they all being members of an FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 2/11 SC No.56544/2016 unlawful assembly and armed with deadly weapon like hand made sua and surgical blades, in prosecution of the common object of the assembly, assaulted and attempted to murder another undertrial prisoner Ravinder S/o Sh. Jagge Ram.
2. The case of the prosecution is that upon receiving DD No.79B dated 12.03.2015, ASI Banwali Lal reached DDU Hospital and found that the injured Ravinder @ Tarzan S/o Jagge Ram and Rafitullah S/o Barkatullah had been admitted in hospital for medical treatment vide MLC No. 2047/15 and 2046/2015 respectively from Central Jail No. 4. ASI Banwari Lal collected their MLCs from the hospital. On the same night, undertrial prisoners injured Ashu S/o Raj Kumar, Ravi S/o Birbal and Ajay S/o Sagar were also admitted in the hospital for medical treatment vide MLC No. 2108/15, 2051/15 and 2050/15 respectively. On inquiry, it was revealed that all them had been injured in same incident. ASI Banwari Lal collected the MLCs of the remaining injured persons as well. None of them made any statement to ASI Banwari Lal. On 16.03.2015, a complaint dated 12.03.2015 was received from Deputy Superintendent, Central Jail No. 4, Tihar Jail, New Delhi against the undertrial prisoners Arvind, Ajay, Ashu and the convicts Ravi and FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 3/11 SC No.56544/2016 Rafitullah @ Salman.
2.1 In the complaint, it has been stated that on 12.03.2015 at about 08:15 PM, it was reported at the control room by the Head Warder of Ward No. 9 that during the lock in time, the UTP's Arvind of Ward No. 14/2, Ajay S/o Saran of Ward No. 11/A, Ashu of Ward No. 11/3 and convicts namely Ravi and Rafitullah @ Salman of Ward No. 7/1 had brutally attacked another UTP namely Ravinder @ Tarzan of Ward No. 9/1 at the gate of Ward No. 9. It was also stated that incident took place outside the gate of Ward No. 9 when administrative formalities for admission of the UTP namely Ravinder @ Tarzan S/o Jaage Ram in the jail were in process and that in order to mitigate their act of attack, UTP Ajay S/o Saran, Ashu S/o Raj Kumar and convicts namely Ravi S/o Birbal and Rafitullah @ Salman S/o Barkatullah had inflicted injuries upon themselves. Convict Rafitullah @ Salman S/o Barkatullah, who had sustained severe injuries, was also sent to DDU Hospital for advanced medical treatment. Head Warder, Sh. Ashok, had witnessed the attack in the midst of the lock in proceedings of the inmates and had immediately informed the remaining staff, who separated the inmates using minimum force and brought them to the control FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 4/11 SC No.56544/2016 room (chakkar). As the condition of Ravinder @ Tarzen S/o Jaage Ram was serious, he was rushed to the jail dispensary and doctor on duty immediately referred him to DDU Hospital for further necessary treatment. On extensive search of the place of occurrence, two handmade sua and one surgical blade were recovered. On being asked about the reason for the gruesome attack, UTP Arvind admitted to have hatched the conspiracy to attack Ravinder owing to personal enmity with him. Initiation of appropriate action against the accused persons was sought.
2.2 On the basis of the above complaint dated 12.03.2015, ASI Banwari Lal got the FIR registered. During investigation, ASI Banwari Lal visited Central Jail No. 4, Tihar Jail on 16.05.2015 and formally arrested the accused Ravi and Rafitullah in the case. Hand made sua and surgical blade produced by Assistant Superintendent were seized by him. On 17.06.2015, further investigation of the case was assigned to SI Mohit Prakash. He obtained the opinion of the doctor concerned, who opined that the injuries sustained by the injured Ravinder were simple in nature. On 18.07.2015, he recorded the statement of the injured Ravinder under Section 161 CrPC. In his statement, he stated that on 12.03.2015, he was attacked with hand made sua and FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 5/11 SC No.56544/2016 surgical blades by five persons and that later on, he came to know that on the date of incident, accused Ravi and Rafitullah had caught hold him and that while accused Ashu had inflicted injury with the surgical blade, accused Arvind and Ajay had caused injuries with hand made sua to him. On 25.07.2015, accused Arvind, Ashu and Ajay were also arrested in the case. After the completion of investigation, charge sheet against the accused persons was filed in the court on 26.08.2015.
3 Charge: On 01.12.2015, charges for the commission of offences punishable under Sections 147/148/307 read with Section 149 IPC were framed against all the five accused persons to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
4 Prosecution evidence: In support of its case, the prosecution examined seven witnesses:
4.1. PW1 Sh. L.P. Nirmal, Rt. Deputy Jail Superintendent is the complainant. He proved the complaint dated 12.03.2015 made to SHO, P.S Hari Nagar as Ex. PW1/A. 4.2 PW2 Ravinder @ Tarzan is the injured.
FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 6/11 SC No.56544/2016 4.3 PW3 ASI Raj Singh is the duty officer. He proved the copy of the FIR as Ex.PW3/A, endorsement made by him on the rukka Ex.PW3/B and the certificate under Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act issued by him in respect of the FIR as Ex.PW3/C. 4.4 PW4 Sh. Mandeep Singh Dahiya, Assistant Superintendent deposed that on 16.05.2015, he had produced one surgical blade and two ice breakers (suas) to the IO, who seized the said weapons vide seizure memo Ex. PW4/A. He also identified the surgical blade as Ex. PW4/A1 and the ice breakers as Ex. PW 4/A2 (colly).
4.5 PW5 Head Warder Ashok Kumar is stated to be the eye witness of the incident.
4.6 PW6 Ct. Narender Kumar was examined to prove DD No.79B dated 12.03.2015 vide which the information regarding the admission of injured Ravinder and Rafitullah in DDU hospital was received at P.S Hari Nagar. He proved DD No.79B as Ex.PW6/A (OSR) and deposed that the said DD was handed over to ASI Banwari Lal for inquiry 4.7 PW7 ASI Banwari Lal is the first investigating officer of the case. He proved the endorsement made by him on the complaint dated 12.03.2015 as Ex. PW7/A, site plan of the spot prepared at the instance of Head Warder Ashok as Ex. PW7/B, arrest FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 7/11 SC No.56544/2016 memos of the accused Rafitullah and Ravi as Ex. PW7/C and Ex. PW7/D respectively and the disclosure statements made by them as Ex. PW7/E and Ex. PW7/F respectively.
Since the injured Ravinder and the eye witness of the incident Head Warder Ashok did not support the case of the prosecution, prosecution evidence was closed by the order of even date. In the absence of any incriminating material against the accused persons, their statements under Section 313 CrPC were also dispensed with.
5. I have heard the Ld. Addl. PP for state as well as the counsel for the accused persons. Record has also been perused.
6. The star witnesses of the case of the prosecution were the injured Ravinder and the eye witness of the incident namely Head Warder Ashok Kumar. However, none of the said witnesses supported the case of the prosecution qua the identity of the accused persons. Injured Ravinder, who was examined as PW2, deposed that on the date of incident, when he was entering in Ward No. 9, somebody hit a weapon on his head from behind due to which he fell down and became unconscious FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 8/11 SC No.56544/2016 and therefore, he could not see the face of the assaulter. He was cross examined by the Ld. APP but in his cross examination also, he reiterated that he could not see the persons who had attacked and caused injuries him on the date of incident. He stated that he did not make any statement to IO and categorically denied that he had told the names of the accused persons to the police.
7. Head Warder Ashok Kumar, who is stated to be the eye witness of the incident and had rescued the injured from the accused persons, was examined as PW5. In his testimony, he deposed that upon hearing the noise coming from the side of main gate of Ward No. 9, he reached there and found that one UTP was lying there in injured condition and that he took him to Jail Hospital with the help of other UTPs. He stated that since he reached the spot after the incident, he did not witness the same. He was also cross examined by the Ld. APP but nothing could be elicited therefrom against the accused persons. Further, PW4 Assistant Superintendent Mandeep Singh, who produced the alleged weapons of offence, admitted in his cross examination that the said articles were not recovered from the accused persons in his presence.
FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 9/11 SC No.56544/2016
8. Since the injured and the eye witness did not support the case of the prosecution, it would have been a futile exercise to examine the remaining witnesses cited by the prosecution who were either the police officials or formal in nature. In the absence of any incriminating evidence on record to connect the accused persons with the offence in question, the prosecution evidence was closed and the statements of the accused persons under Section 313 CrPC were dispensed with.
9. For the failure of the injured and the other eye witness to support the case of the prosecution and in the absence of any other material to connect the accused persons with offences in question, it is evident that the prosecution has miserably failed to bring home the guilt of the accused persons. Accordingly, the accused persons namely Rafitullah @ Salman, Arvind, Ajay, Ashu and Ravi are hereby acquitted of the charges for the commission of offences punishable under Sections 147/148/307 read with Section 149 IPC against them.
10. Case properties are confiscated to State. If no appeal is preferred by the prosecution against the acquittal of the accused persons FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 10/11 SC No.56544/2016 within the prescribed period of limitation, the case properties be disposed of as per rules.
11. At request of the defence counsel, matter be listed for furnishing of bail bonds under section 437A CrPC on behalf of the accused persons on 05.10.2018.
SMITA Digitally signed
by SMITA GARG
Date: 2018.10.11
GARG 16:29:24 +0530
Announced in the open court (Smita Garg)
on 04.10.2018 Addl. Sessions JudgeFTC, (West)
Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi.
FIR No. 698/2015 State v. Rafitullah & Ors. Page No. 11/11