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2004(7) Supreme 156
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
(From Patna High Court)
P. Venkatarama Reddi & B.P. Singh, JJ.
Pramod Mandal -Appellant
versus
State of Bihar -Respondent
Criminal Appeal No. 174 of 2003
Decided on 17-9-2004
Counsel for the Parties :
For the Appellant : Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, Satyajeet Kumar, Advocates.
For the Respondent : B.B. Singh and Kumar Rajesh Singh, Advocates.
(ii) CRIMINAL TRIAL-Test identification Parade-Dacoity with murder-Accused appellant was arrested on 17.1.1989 and was put up for TIP on 18.2.1989-Test identification evidence could not be ignored solely on that ground.
Held : It is neither possible nor prudent to lay down any invariable rule as to the period within which a Test Identification Parade must be held, or the number of witnesses who must correctly identify the accused, to sustain his conviction. These matters must be left to the Courts of fact to decide in the facts and circumstances of each case. If a rule is laid down prescribing a period within which the Test Identification Parade must be held, it would only benefit the professional criminals in whose cases the arrests are delayed as the police have no clear clue about their identity, they being persons unknown to the victims. They therefore, have only to avoid their arrest for the prescribed period to avoid conviction. Similarly, there may be offences which by their very nature may be witnessed by a single witness, such as rape. The offender may be unknown to the victim and the case depends solely on the identification by the victim, who is otherwise found to be truthful and reliable. What justification can be pleaded to contend that such cases must necessarily result in acquittal because of there being only one identifying witness? Prudence therefore demands that these matters must be left to the wisdom of the courts of fact which must consider all aspects of the matter in the light of the evidence on record before pronouncing upon the acceptability or rejection of such identification. (Para 20)
JUDGMENT
B.P. Singh, J.-In this appeal by special leave the sole appellant is Pramod Mandal who alongwith six others was put up for trial before the 6th Additional Sessions Judge, Bhagalpur in Sessions Case No. 739 of 1990 charged of the offence under Section 396 IPC. It is not necessary to refer to the charges framed against the remaining accused since they are not appellants before us. The trial court by its judgment and order of April 24, 1995 found the appellant guilty of the offence under section 396 IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. The appellant preferred Criminal Appeal No. 125 of 1995 before the High Court of Judicature at Patna which was dismissed by the High Court by its impugned judgment and order of April 5, 2002.
2. We may only observe that of the seven persons put up for trial before the learned 6th Additional Sessions Judge one Deepak Yadav was given the benefit of doubt and acquitted. One Parsuram Pawan was sentenced to life imprisonment both under sections 396 and 302 IPC, while Rajesh Kumar Yadav was sentenced to life imprisonment under section 396 IPC. The remaining accused were sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment under section 396 IPC. The appeals preferred by the remaining accused have also been disposed of by the High Court by the impugned judgment.
3. The case of the prosecution is that the informant Dr. Balmiki Singh is a resident of Mohalla Sahebganj, Nathnagar. On January 13, 1989 at 2010 hours he lodged a first information report at P.S. Nathnagar in which he stated that on that date at about 7.30 p.m. while he was watching the television, other members of the family were in the house. His son Priyadarshi Ashok, PW-1 had gone to the fields and had not returned. While he was watching the television he saw that three persons entered his house with concealed faces. Of them two were armed with pistols and they demanded the keys from him. He could identify accused Parsuram Paswan by his voice, stature and eyes. He then heard the cries of his daughter-in-law coming from another room and when he rushed to her room he found that two other persons were threatening her, of whom one was armed with country made pistol. His daughter-in-law handed over to them whatever ornaments she was wearing at that time. Two other persons then entered the room who picked up some articles. Those two persons had not concealed their faces. Some other dacoits also entered the room of his daughter-in-law and started making demands from her. A relative of his, namely Rajiv Kumar Mishra, PW-4, who was residing with him, told his daughter-in-law to handover the keys to the dacoits. Thereafter the dacoits asked Rajiv to open the almirah but he was unable to do so. One of the dacoits threatened to kill him if he did not open the almirah. Seeing this, the informant rushed and caught that hand of the dacoit in which he was holding the pistol and pushed him towards the verandah. Thereafter the informant s daughter, Rani Purnashri started raising alarm. Some of the dacoits were in the courtyard of the house and he recognized one of them as Rajesh Yadav who was armed with a pistol. Rajesh Yadav exhorted Parshuram to fire and thereafter Parshuram fired hitting his daughter Rani Purnashri. The dacoits also exploded bombs. The informant claimed to have recognized one of the miscreants as Deepak Yadav who assaulted him on his back with the barrel of his pistol as a result of which his grip over one of the dacoits, whom he had caught, loosened and that dacoit slipped away. Thereafter the dacoits fled away. His daughter Rani Purnashri succumbed to her injuries. By this time his son Priyadarshi Ashok, PW-1 had also come. He mentioned in his report that Aruni, Rajiv Kumar Mishra, PW-4 and Madan Sriharsha, PW-2 were also injured. In the report he also gave descriptions of other dacoits whom he had not recognized.
4. A motive was suggested in the report itself. The informant stated that he had a dispute with Raj
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