IMPORTANT POINTS
A person who has been arrested or detained and is being held in custody in a police station or interrogation centre or other lock-up shall be entitled to have one friend or relative or other person known to him or having interest in his welfare being informed, as soon as practicable, that he has been arrested and is being detained at the particular place, unless the attesting witness of the memo of arrest is himself such a friend or a relative of the arrestee.

JUDGMENT :

The second and fourth accused in S.C.No.223 of 2001 on the file of Additional Sessions Judge, Kottayam filed this appeal. When this appeal came up for consideration, on an earlier occasion, there was no representation to the appellants, and hence notice was issued to them. Notice issued to the first appellant was returned with an endorsement "not known," and notice issued to the second appellant was returned with an endorsement "addressee deceased." Therefore, on 6.2.2020 this court passed the following order:

“This appeal is filed by accused Nos.2 and 4 as appellants 1 and 2. Notice to 1st appellant was returned with endorsement 'not known' and to the 2nd appellant with endorsement “addressee deceased” Legal heirs of the 2nd appellant have not come forward to proceed with the prosecution further. Since the 2nd appellant is no more, appeal as against him is abated. Notice to 1st appellant having been returned with endorsement 'not known', Registry shall issue fresh notice to him through SHO of Police station within the jurisdiction of which the 1st appellant is residing.”

2. After that, when the matter came up for consideration on 21.5.2020, the first appellant appeared through a counsel. Hence, the service to the 1st appellant is complete. Today the appeal heard finally.

3. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, CB CID, Kottayam filed a final report against 19 accused alleging offences under Section 489(A), (C) and (D) of the Indian Penal Code. Sixteen accused faced trial, and the trial court convicted accused Nos.1 to 4 and acquitted accused Nos.5 to 16. ('The original accused' referred in this judgment means the accused in the police charge sheet) Accused No.1 filed Crl.A No.653 of 2004 and accused No.3 filed Crl.A No.691 of 2004 before this Court. The other accused filed the present appeal, which is numbered as Crl.A No.658 of 2004. Crl.A No.653 of 2004 was closed on 20.10.2017 as abated because the first accused died on 11.1.2015. The appeal filed by the third accused, which is numbered as Crl.A No.691 of 2004 was also closed as abated because the third accused also died. That appeal was closed on 11.11.2019. As stated earlier, the fourth accused also died, and his case was also abated. Now the appeal filed by the second accused is pending before this court. (Hereinafter the parties are mentioned in accordance with their rank before the trial court).

4. The prosecution case, in a nutshell, is that the accused in furtherance of their common intention to manufacture, possess, and trafficking currency notes made a conspiracy to do so, from the month of November 1990 to 3rd October 1991, from house No.VIII/64 of Pampady village with name Chennampally house wherein the first accused was residing. It was with the cooperation and under the leadership of the original tenth accused in the charge sheet who is ninth accused in this case. The conspiracy was made from the houses of accused Nos.4 and 1 and also at Premier Tourist Home, Ernakulam, Obroy Hotel at Ernakulam. As a result of this conspiracy, accused Nos.2, 4 and 12 in the original charge sheet and 11 in the present case with other accused spent money and after that accused Nos.2, 5 and 10th in the original charge sheet and ninth accused in this case with other accused went to Gunasundari Printers at Vannarpetta and purchased an offset printing press from CW28. After that, it was established in the house of nineteenth accused in the original charge with the connivance of the other accused in the case and manufactured ten rupee fake notes worth more than Rs.12 lakhs. Further case is that it is circulated under the instruction of original tenth accused in the charge sheet and ninth accused herein by accused Nos.2, 3, 16th accused in the original charge sheet and 15th accused in this case and 17th accused to 19th accused in the original charge sheet (19th accused tried as 16th accused in this case) and thereby all of them have committed the above offences. This is the crux