Mrs. Daya Chaudhary, J.: - By this judgment, five Criminal Appeal Nos. S-1263-SB, S- 1277-SB, S-1292-SB, S-1317-SB and S-1687-SB of 2004 shall be disposed of as all the appeals have arisen out of same judgment of conviction and order of sentence. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts are being extracted from CRA-S-1687-SB of 2004.

2. Brief facts as per the prosecution version are that on 14.10.2001, complainant-Hans Raj Demla, lodged a complaint with the Police stating that he runs a shop of wood and stone. On 14.10.2001 at about 7.00 PM, he started from his shop in his car bearing registration No. HR-10C-8570 for Sonipat. He was having an amount of Rs.2,30,000/- in his bag. He was also having certain papers pertaining to accounts of the shop, driving licence, voter card, registration certificate and insurance policy of the car in that bag. At about 8 pm. On reaching at his residence, he parked his car in the gallery of his house and closed the main gate. He also took out the bag containing the cash. The outside lights were on at that time. In the meantime, three young persons came inside after opening the gate and asked the complainant to hand over the bag containing cash to them. The complainant was knowing those persons as they used to come to his shop and their names were Ramesh Nai (Barber), Azad Pandit (Brahman) residents of Bakner and Vikas resident of Ahulana. The complainant asked the said persons as to what was the matter but all the three demanded the bag containing cash. The complainant became nervous and the bag was snatched from him by stating that he will be shot for not doing so. Azad and Vikas were armed with pistols. All the three ran away towards Bharat Hospital after snatching the bag. The complainant raised alarm but they were not visible.

3. On the basis of said statement of complainant, FIR was registered under Sections 392, 395, 397 of Indian Penal Code (for short ‘IPC’) and Section 25 of the Arms Act against five accused persons, namely, Azad, Ramesh, Joginder, Dharamjit @ Kala and Vikas. The accused were arrested and recovery of cash, country made pistol and knife was effected from them. The charges were framed under Section 397 IPC and Section 25 of Arms Act against accused persons. All the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

4. The prosecution examined as many as fifteen witnesses.

5. Thereafter, statements of the accused under Section 313 Cr.P.C. was recorded. The accused denied all the allegations and pleaded false implication and innocence.

6. On appraisal of evidence, the trial Court convicted the accused persons for offence punishable under Section 412 IPC vide judgment of conviction dated 31.05.2004 and sentenced them to undergo RI for a period of 7 years and to pay fine of Rs.3000/- each with default clause vide order of sentence dated 05.06.2004. Accused, namely, Azad, Joginder alias Dhola and Vikas were also convicted under Section 25 of the Arms Act for keeping in their possession unlawful arms and ammunition and were sentenced to undergo RI for a period of 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs.2000/- each with default clause. Accused, namely, Ramesh and Dharamjit alias Kala were also convicted under Section 25 of the Arms Act for keeping in their possession illegally knife and both were sentenced to undergo RI for a period of one year. The sentences of imprisonment were ordered to run concurrently.

7. All the accused-appellants filed five appeals separately to challenge the judgment of conviction dated 31.05.2004 and order of sentence dated 05.06.2004.

8. Mr. Sagar Aggarwal, Advocate appearing for accused-appellant-Dharamjit alias Kala submits that even the complainant- Hans Raj Demla (PW1) and his son Tarun (PW2), while appearing in the Court, have not supported the case of the prosecution. They have specifically stated that they did not know the accused persons present in the Court. No other witness of the alleged occurrence has been examined by the prosecution. L