PETITIONER:
STATE OF RAJASTHAN
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
SUKHPAL SINGH & OTHERS
DATE OF JUDGMENT16/12/1982
BENCH:
CHANDRACHUD, Y.V. ((CJ)
BENCH:
CHANDRACHUD, Y.V. ((CJ)
TULZAPURKAR, V.D.
CITATION:
1984 AIR 207 1983 SCR (2) 53
1983 SCC (1) 393 1982 SCALE (2)1328
CITATOR INFO :
D 1990 SC1359 (5)
ACT:
Evidence-Appreciation of-In an appeal against order of
acquittal by High Court.
HEADNOTE:
Seven or eight armed dacoits entered a bank at Bayana,
terrorised and beat up its employees, looted currency notes
worth Rs. 15, 253/-, put the same in a black box and drove
away with the booty in an Ambassador car. The F.I.R. was
lodged within half an hour of the dacoity and wireless
messages were sent out for interception of the car. Soon
thereafter, an Ambassador car having seven persons seated in
it and being driven in panic arrived near Weir from the
direction of Bayana and met with an accident. The police and
the public surrounded the occupants of the car when they
came out but they tried to escape by firing from their
pistols. They were chased and arrested but not before some
members of the public received injuries on account of the
firing. The prosecution case was that it was the respondents
who looted the bank, escaped in the car and were chased and
arrested; that each of them was carrying a bundle of hundred
currency notes of Rs. 10/- each; that the black box found in
the car contained currency notes of the value of Rs. 6,800
belonging to the looted bank; and that live cartridges and
knives had been recovered from the possession of some of the
respondents. At the trial, the respondents admitted that
they had been arrested near Weir but denied any hand in the
dacoity. The Sessions Judge rejected their plea and
convicted them under s. 395, I.P.C.
The High Court acquitted the respondents on three
grounds: (i) that the evidence regarding identification of
the respondents was not convincing as some of the witnesses
who had identified the dacoits in jail had failed to
identify them before the trial court; (ii) that the evidence
regarding recovery of stolen property was not acceptable as
the recovery memos were not genuine, the knives and
cartridges had not been produced before the court, and the
story that each of the respondents was carrying currency
notes worth Rs. 1000 while running away after leaving a sum
of Rs. 6,800 in the black box was unnatural; and (iii) that
the allegation that the respondents had escaped in the
Ambassador car and had come out of that car after it met
with an accident was not acceptable in the absence of an
entry relating to the number of the car in the General Diary
of the Police.
Allowing the appeal,
^
HELD: If two views of the evidence were reasonably
possible in this appeal by special leave against acquittal,
the court would not have substituted
54
its own assessment of the evidence for that of the High
Court. But it is impossible on any hypothesis to accept the
conclusion of the High Court. It is difficult in an incident
of this kind to have evidence as strong and clinching as it
is before the Court. The only conclusion which one can come
to upon that evidence is that the charge has been brought
home to the accused.
[57 E-F; 60 B]
(b) The judgment of the High Court is severely laboured
and unrealistic. Evidence which is incontrovertible has been
rejected on suspicion and surmises. Witnesses who had no axe
to grind and had no personal motive to implicate the accused
on a false charge have been disbelieved on feeble
considerations. And the recovery of incriminating articles
has been by-passed and disbelieved by characterising it as
unnatural and incredible. Different crimes have different
patterns and the offenders improvise their strategy
according to the exigencies of the occasion. The prosecution
story has been rejected as not fitting in with the common
course of events on the supposition and insistence that a
crime of the present nature had to conform to a pattern of
the kind which the High Court harboured in its mind. [57 F-
H]
(i) The High Court gave exaggerated importance to the
infirmities attaching to the ability of the witnesses to
identify the respondents and overlooked the fact that they
had been arrested red-handed and on the spot. The incident
which took place in the bank, the attempt made by the
offenders to escape and their pursuit by the police and the
public, which had all been proved by the most clear and
cogent evidence, were but links in the same chain of
causation and were parts of one and the same transaction.
[58 A-B & F]
(ii) There was no infirmity attaching to the evidence
of the Station House Officer, Bayana who was examined as a
court witness by the High Court itself, regarding the
recovery of the black box from the car and the High Court
was not justified in rejecting his evidence. The submission
that the box could have been easily planted by the police
after the respondents were arrested is wholly unjustified.
The box was not left in the car as a matter of sweet
volition. The respondents had no option save to abandon it
in the car when they were surrounded by the police and the
public. What is natural by the test of common experience is
that thieves, while running away in order to escape from
those who are chasing them, would leave a biggish article
containing the loot where it lies. [59 D-E]
(iii) The circumstance that the number of the car was
not mentioned in the police diary was a petty matter in the
midst of a large mass of good evidence connecting the
respondents with the crime. [59 G]
JUDGMENT:
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal No.134
of 1973.
Appeal by special leave from the Judgment and Order
dated the 13th November, 1972 of the Rajasthan High Court in
S.P. Criminal Appeal Nos. 580 and 581 of 1972.
B.D. Sharma for the Appellant.
55
D. Mookerjee and Dr. B.S. Chauhan for Respondents 1 to
4.
R.K. Garg, A.K. Panda and Sunil Kumar Jain for
Respondents 2 and 3.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
CHANDRACHUD, C.J. The respondents were convicted by the
learned Sessions Judge, Bharatpur, under section 395 of the
Penal Code and were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for
three years. By its judgement dated November 13, 1972, the
High Court of Rajasthan has set aside that judgment and has
acquitted the respondents. The State of Rajasthan has filed
this appeal by special leave against the judgment of the
High Court.
The State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur had a branch at
Bayana in the district of Bharatpur. At about 1.30 p.m., on
March 17, 1971, seven or eight persons looted the Bank.
Jugal Kishore Paliwal, the Agent of the Bank, was working in
his chamber, while Bhagwan Dass Goyal, Head Cashier, and
Suresh Chand Goyal, Assistant Cashier, were in the cash
cabin at that time. The decoits, who were armed with
country-made pistols, knives and a hand-grenade, ordered
these Bank employees to stand up and raise their hands.
Three dacoits entered the Agent’s room, beat him up and
opened the safe and the almirahs. They could not find any
money therein. They then took the agent to the cash cabin,
where they tore open the lid of an iron cash box and took
away currency notes of Rs. 15,253 from it. They snatched a
black-coloured confidential box lying on a nearby table,
threw away the papers which were in that box and put the
money in it. They carried away the black box, got into a
blue Ambassador car and drove away.
The first Information Report of the occurrence was
lodged by the Head Cashier, Bhagwan Dass Goyal, within about
half an hour i.e. at 2.00 p.m., at Police Station Bayana.
The Police Officer there sent wireless messages to the
surrounding police stations as also to police outposts. On
receipt of the message, the Head Constable in charge of the
police station at Weir, posted police personnel to block the
car on the road. Soon thereafter, an Ambassador car bearing
No. DLJ 7458, in which seven persons were seated, arrived
from the direction of Bayana. Driven in panic, the car
dashed against an oil barrel in front of a shop and was
damaged. The occupants of the car were forced by that
circumstance to come out of the car, whereupon they were
surrounded by the police and the members of the
56
public. The occupants fired from their pistols and tried to
escape under cover of fire but the police and the public
gave them a hot chase for over a mile and succeeded in
surrounding them once again. The occupants of the car opened
fire causing injuries to some members of the public.
Ultimately, they were over-powered and caught. Babu Lal,
Station House Officer of the Bayana Police Station, arrived
on the scene and arrested the respondents. It transpired
during the investigation that the Ambassador car which the
respondents had used was stolen from New Delhi a day before
the occurrence. The case of the prosecution is that the
respondents before us were the very persons who looted the
Bank, escaped in the car and were chased and arrested.
The respondents admitted that they were arrested near
Weir but they denied that they had any hand in the loot of
the Bank. Each of them furnished a different explanation as
regards his presence at Weir at the time of their arrest.
They also examined four witnesses to show, principally, the
reason of their presence at the place of arrest.
It would appear from the judgment of the learned Single
Judge of the High Court of Rajasthan that three points were
argued on behalf of the respondents: (1) There is no
evidence regarding the identification of the respondents;
(2) There is no trustworthy evidence regarding the recovery
of the stolen property from their possession; and (3) There
is no evidence to show that they had escaped in the
particular Ambassador car and had come out of the car after
it met with an accident.
On the question of identification of the respondents,
the High Court has rejected the evidence of the Agent of the
Bank Jugal Kishore Paliwal (PW 4), Head Clerk Radhey Charan
Bhargava (PW 5), Head Cashier Bhagwan Dass Goyal (PW 6),
Agricultural Asst.. Murari Lal (PW 7), Daftaries Radhey
Shyam Sharma (PW 8) and Amba Prasad (PW 9), and Asst.
Cashier Suresh Goyal (PW 10), on the ground that though some
of these witnesses had identified the dacoits in the jail,
they had failed to identify them before the trial court. It
appears that these witnesses had wrongly identified some of
the accused in the committing court as also before the trial
Court. According to the High Court “The only irresistible
conclusion which can be drawn from their statements is that
their evidence regarding identification is not convincing.”
57
On the question of recovery of the stolen property from
the possession of the respondents the case of the
prosecution is that each of the respondents was carrying a
bundle of hundred currency notes of Rs. 10 each. It is
further alleged that the black box lying in the Ambassador
car was found to contain currency notes of the value of Rs.
6,800 belonging to the Bank. In addition; live cartridges
and knives are also alleged to have been recovered from the
possession of some of the respondents. The High Court has
rejected the whole of this evidence on the ground that the
recovery memos ”cannot be said to be genuine” and were
prepared subsequently, that the knives and live cartridges
were not produced before the Court, that the story that each
of the respondents was carrying currency notes worth Rs.
1000, while running away is unnatural and that, it is not
likely that the respondents would leave the sum of Rs. 6,800
in the black box in the car and would each carry a sum of
Rs.1,000, as if to create evidence against themselves.
On the third question regarding the allegation that the
respondents has escaped in the Ambassador car and had come
out of that car after it met with an accident, the High
Court has rejected the evidence that the respondents had
fled away in the particular car on the ground that in the
entry Exhibit D-40, in the General Diary of the Police
Station, relating to the First Information Report the number
of the car was not mentioned.
If two views of the evidence were reasonably possible,
we would not have substituted our own assessment of the
evidence for that of the High Court in this appeal against
acquittal. But, we are of the opinion that it is impossible
on any hypothesis to accept the conclusion of the High Court
that the prosecution has failed to establish its case. With
respect, we regard the judgment of the High Court as
severally laboured and unrealistic. Evidence which is
incontrovertible has been rejected by the High Court on
suspicion and surmises. Witnesses who had no axe to grind
and had no personal motive to implicate the accused on a
false charge, have been disbelieved on feeble
considerations. And the recovery of incriminating articles
has been bypassed and disbelieved by characterising it as
unnatural and incredible. Different crimes have different
patterns and the offenders improvise their strategy
according to the exigencies of the occasion. The High Court
has rejected the prosecution story as not fitting in with
the common course of events on the supposition and
insistence that a crime of the present nature had to conform
to a pattern of the kind which the High Court harboured in
its mind.
58
On the first question, that is to say the question of
identification, the High Court gave an exaggerated
importance to the infirmities attaching to the ability of
the witnesses to identify the respondents. It was
overlooked, and when an argument in that behalf was made it
was rejected, that the respondents were arrested red-handed
and, in a manner of speaking, on the spot. There was no
dispute that the incident of the kind alleged by the
prosecution had taken place in the premises of the Bank. And
it requires no strong persuasion to hold that after the Bank
was looted, the offenders, whosoever they may be, would try
to escape. The lodging of the First Information Report
within half an hour of the incident, the prompt flashing of
the wireless message to the police stations and police
outposts in the vicinity, the posting of police guards on
the road to stop the car bearing a particular description if
it was detected, the accident which the car met with, the
emergence from the car of six or seven persons, the pursuit
which the police and the public gave them, the shots fired
by those persons, the beating given by members of the public
to them and the fact that they were ultimately over-powered,
caught and arrested, are all matters which are proved by the
most clear and cogent evidence. Respondents are the persons
who got down from the car after it met with an accident and
they are the very persons who bear telltale marks of the
rather severe drubbing given by the public. We are unable to
understand how, in these circumstances, the High Court could
have held that since the accused were not arrested on the
spot, the evidence regarding their identity must assume
importance. The incident which took place in the Bank, the
attempt made by the offenders to escape and their pursuit by
the police and the public, are but links in the same chain
of causation. They are parts of one and the same
transaction. This, therefore, is a case in which the
offenders were caught red-handed near the place of offence
while they were trying to escape. They fired while fleeing
and caused injuries to those who were bravely trying to
surround them but eventually, the police and the public got
the better of them. No further question survives but, since
the High Court has given great importance to some other
aspects of the case, we must advert to them.
Equally significant is the circumstance that an office
box (Article 3) containing Rs. 6,800 was seized from the
Ambassador car from which the respondents came out after the
accident. The Memo of Seizure is at Exhibit P-22. The
bundles of currency notes found in the box bore chits in the
name of the Bank of Bikaner and
59
Jaipur, Bayana Branch. The box also contained certain
documents belonging to the Bank, including a passbook of
Head Clerk Radhe Shyam Bhargava (PW 5). Some of the
witnesses examined by the prosecution turned hostile, which
only shows what terror a lawless group of dacoits can strike
in the minds of men. But the evidence of Babu Lal, the
Station House Officer, Bayana, who was examined as a Court
witness by the High Court itself, shows that the black box
containing the money and the other articles was seized from
the Ambassador car. The High Court has rejected this
evidence with a broad and unfounded observation that the
recovery memo was prepared subsequently. We are unable to
share that view. The High Court says that “It is not easily
believable that the accused would leave Rs. 6,800 in the box
lying in the car and each would run away with a thousand
rupees”. The story that a sum of Rs. 1,000 was found on the
person of each of the respondents may or may not be
accepted. But there is no infirmity attaching to the
evidence of Babu Lal regarding the recovery of the black box
from the car. Shri R.K. Garg, who appears on behalf of the
respondents, urged that the box could have been easily
planted by the police after the respondents were arrested.
This submission is wholly unjustified. The box containing
the currency notes, which were a part of the loot, was not
left in the car as a matter of sweet volition. The
respondents had no option save to abandon it in the car in
which they were travelling, when the car met with an
accident and they were surrounded by the police and the
public. What is natural by the test of common experience is
that a biggish article containing the loot would be left by
the thieves where it lies. They would not take it with them,
while running away in order to escape from the clutches of
the people who were chasing them.
The High Court has dwelt copiously on the question as
to whether the number of the Ambassador car was disclosed in
the first Information Report. The number of the car may or
may not have been mentioned to the police by Goyal who gave
the F.I.R. But we consider that to be a petty matter in the
midst of a large mass of good evidence connecting the
respondents with the crime. The fact that the respondents
escaped in an Ambassador car is specifically mentioned in
the F.I.R., Exhibit P-1. In fact, the F.I.R. mentions that
the Ambassador car bore the number DLJ 7458 but the High
Court considered it as an interpolation since, the entry,
Exhibit D-40 in the General Diary of the Police Station
relating to the F.I.R., does not mention the number of the
car. The inference drawn by the High Court that the F.I.R.
was prepared later is unsustainable. The entry
60
D-40 is after all a summary and summaries are not intended
to be exhaustive. Then they would cease to be summaries.
It is difficult in an incident of this kind to have
evidence as strong and clinching as we have before us. The
only conclusion which one can come to upon that evidence is
that the charge has been brought home to the accused.
Accordingly, we allow the appeal, set aside the judgment of
the High Court and restore the order of conviction recorded
by the learned Sessions Judge against the respondents under
section 395 of the Penal Code. The learned Judge had
sentenced each of the respondents to rigorous imprisonment
for three years. The judgment of the High Court is already a
decade old. (We are beholden that we are not yet faced with
cases in their Silver jubilee year). Respondents have been
on bail after undergoing a substantial part of the
imprisonment. We understand that some of them are not
working as Veterinary doctors or Assistants and have settled
down as married men with children. Taking these factors into
account, we sentence each of the respondents to rigorous
imprisonment for the period already undergone by them. We,
however, impose upon each one of them a fine of rupees three
thousand, which they shall pay within three months from to-
day. Failing such payment, the respondents shall each
undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months.
H.L.C. Appeal allowed.
61