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4. Prosecution story, in short, is that complainant Rajpal Singh Jaat submitted a letter dated 13.03.2015 at the Police Outpost which was sent by BSF, Tekanpur stating that Gurpreet Singh, Deputy Commandant is posted in Special Training School and is residing along with his family in Sudheer Hostel No.-8, BSF Academy, Tekanpur. On 21.02.2015, in the afternoon, he went to Punjab along with his family on leave. While proceeding on leave, he handed over the key of his room to constable Dhara Singh. On 13.03.2015, at about 12:40 pm, when he came back to his house i.e. Sudheer Hostel No.-8, BSF Academy, Tekanpur, then he found that his personal laptop of Compaq Company and a government laptop of HP company were missing and accordingly on the basis of this complaint, Crime No.116/2015 was registered at Police Station Dabra for offences punishable under Sections 457 and 380 of IPC. The stolen laptops were seized from the possession of applicant. The Police after completing the investigation filed charge-sheet for offences under Sections 457 and 380 of IPC.

Being aggrieved by the said judgment, applicant preferred an appeal which too has been dismissed by the appellate court.

5. Challenging the judgment and sentence passed by Courts below, it is submitted by counsel for applicant that although two laptops were seized on the memorandum made by applicant but those laptops were seized from a room of the house of one Bhadoriya. Bhadoriya has multiple rooms in his house. Therefore, it is not clear that the room from where the laptops were seized, was in exclusive possession of applicant. Furthermore, independent witnesses of seizure have turned hostile.

13. Hari Singh Kushwah (PW-7) has also turned hostile but he admitted his signatures on the memorandum Ex.P-7 and arrest memo of applicant Ex.P-6.

14. Jitendra Singh Bhadoriya (PW-8) is the investigating officer. He has stated that applicant was arrested vide arrest memo Ex.P-6. He was taken into custody and his memorandum Ex.P-7 was recorded under Section 27 of Evidence Act. On the basis of information given by applicant, two laptops were seized from the room belonging to Bhadoriya which was taken by applicant on rent. Seizure NEUTRAL CITATION NO. 2025:MPHC-GWL:1971 memo Ex.P-8 contains his signatures as well as signatures of applicant.

17. Thus, it is clear that applicant himself has admitted that he was residing in the room on rent. On memorandum made by applicant, two laptops were seized from the room in which he was residing as a tenant. The seizure memo contains all the minor details of the laptops including serial numbers as well as book numbers. Deputy Commandant- Gurpreet Singh has also clearly deposed about the serial number and book number of the stolen laptops. The stolen laptops were also identified Gurpreet Singh (PW-3) as Article A-1 and Article A-2 and chargers were identified as Article A-3 and Article A-4. So far as the fact that the independent witnesses of seizure have turned hostile is concerned, this Court is of considered opinion that this fact by itself is not sufficient to discard the evidence of police officer Jitendra Singh Bhadoriya (PW-8). It is well established principle of law that evidence of police officer cannot be discarded merely on account of his official status.