SARANG V. KOTWAL, J.

1. The State of Maharashtra has preferred this Appeal against the Judgment and Order dated 07/06/1996 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Greater Mumbai, in Sessions Case No.1196 of 1993. The Respondents (original accused) were acquitted from the charges framed against them.

2. The Respondent No.1 Alex @ Taklya Francis Dias, Respondent No.2 Asgarali Abdulali Khan and Respondent No.3 Joseph Mariya Prekaram Chattiyar were the original Accused Nos.1, 2 and 3 respectively. By the impugned Judgment and Order all the Respondents were acquitted from the charge of commission of offence punishable u/s 395, 394 r/w 34 of the IPC. The Respondent No.2 was acquitted from the additional charge of commission of offence punishable u/s 397 of IPC. There was one more accused i.e. accused No.4 Ganesh Sakharam Khaire who had faced the trial. He was similarly acquitted from commission of offences mentioned above. The said accused is not a Respondent before this Court in the present Appeal.

3. The prosecution case in brief is as follows :

On 10/02/1999 P.W.1 Kishor Prabhakar Mastakar was travelling in his car along with his two employees. He was carrying an amount of Rs.4,14,906/- for depositing it in a bank. When their car reached at V.R. Desai Road, Linking Road, one jeep intercepted them. Three persons came out of the jeep. Two were carrying choppers and was one carrying a hockey stick. There were others in the jeep. Out of these three, one person with chopper wielded his weapon to prevent the members of public to intervene. The other person carrying a chopper broke windshield of the car and took away the bag containing the cash amount. The person carrying a hockey stick assaulted one of the employees. After taking away the money, all of them went away in their jeep. The incident took place in the morning. The FIR was lodged immediately by Kishor Mastakar at bout 09.55 a.m. at Oshiwara Police Station, vide C.R.No.110/92. The investigation was conducted. During investigation it was revealed that the accused in C.R.No.28/92 and 359/92 registered at N.M. Joshi Marg Police station were the culprits in the C.R.No.110/92 of Oshiwara Police Station. Therefore these accused were taken in custody in connection with C.R.No.110/92 of Oshiwara Police Station under transfer warrants. The accused/Respondent No.1 was arrested in the present crime on 25/05/1992. Accused/Respondent No.2, 3 and one more accused namely Sadiq were shown arrested on 23/06/1992 and the accused No.4 was shown arrested on 07/07/1992. Aforementioned Sadiq absconded subsequently and did not face the trial.

4. During course of investigation, three Test Identification Parades were held to enable the witnesses to identify the suspects. In the first Test Identification Parade on 30/05/1992, the accused No.1 was made to stand in the parade and as per the prosecution case, two witnesses identified him. In the second identification parade dated 25/06/1992 all the three eyewitnesses identified accused/Respondent Nos.2, 3 and Sadiq. In the third identification parade dated 14/07/1992, accused No.4 was identified by all three witnesses. There was no recovery of the cash amount or the weapons involved in the crime. After completion of the investigation, the charge-sheet was filed and the trial was committed to the Court of Sessions.

5. During trial, the prosecution examined 8 witnesses.

P.W.1 Kishor Prabhakar Mastakar was the victim whose cash amount was stolen. P.W.2 Ankush Pundalik Chavan, and P.W.3 Sankatha Prasad Faujadar Pathak were the employees of P.W.1. These three were travelling together. P.W.4 PSI Ramchandra Keshav Gade had recorded the complaint. P.W.5 Dwarkabhai Maganbhai Patel was the owner of the jeep in which the offenders had travelled and intercepted P.W.1's car. His jeep was stolen by the offenders before the present incident. P.W.6 Vishnu Yeshwant Khushe was the Special Executive Magistrate, who had conducted the Test Identification Parades d