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2010 Supreme(All) 2613

[2010(8) ADJ 22 (DB)]
ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT
BEFORE : VINOD PRASAD AND RAJESH CHANDRA, JJ.
DHARMENDRA .....Appellant (In Jail)
Versus
STATE OF U.P. ...Opposite Party
(Criminal Appeal No. 1417 of 2006, decided on 6th August, 2010)

Advocates:
Counsel :
Taha Bin Islam, Brijesh Sahai, D.M. Chowdhary, Irshad Ali, Lav Srivastava, M.K. Shukla for the Appellant; Satendra Kumar Singh, Siddharth Saran, A.G.A. for the Opposite Party.

Headnote:(A) (Indian) Penal Code, 1860—Section 302—Arms Act, 1959—Section 25—Evidence Act, 1872—Sections 101, 106, 27 and 25—Double murder—Illegal fire-arms—Life imprisonment—Sustainability of—Two FIR's—Earlier FIR scribed and lodged by appellant—Initially, burden of proof lie upon prosecution—It has to discharge its initial burden of proof beyond all shadowing doubt—Prosecution has to establish charge independently—Statute of accused can only be utilised to lend credence or negate prosecution version—Motive of love relationship alleged by prosecution is still more dicay—On this score evidence of P.W. 1 is hearsay—It is inadmissible in evidence—Nothing on record to establish identity of deceased—FIR lodged by P.W. 1 is a sham document, cooked up, manufactured and registered ante-timed—FIR is an important piece of document in a criminal trial—No reliance can be placed on such a piece of evidence to corroborate—False prosecution story—Testimony of eye-witnesses not reliable—They are got up witnesses—Silence in divulging name of appellant at time of inquest—Another FIR is over simplified narration of facts which does not sooth judicial scrutiny—No corroboration of incident from any indepedent source—Eye-witness heard a single gun fire shot—Which is belied by prosecution evidence itself and according to which two shots were fired in incident—Earlier FIR lodged by appellant/accused himself—It is being nature of inculpatory confessional statement before a police officer—It is hit by Section 25 of Evidence Act—Many infirmities in investigation—Both FIRs ante-timed—Prosecution cannot take advantage of defence weaknesses—Disclosure statement leading to recovery not proved in actual words of accused—Recovery of weapon from accused/appellant also to be extremely doubtful—Both murders were separate act of human killing—Trial Court committed error as appellant/accused was not charged for both offences—Framing charge against accused is an onerous act of trial Courts—Framing of charge not an empty formality—Conviction set aside. [Paras 36, 30,43, 46, 48, 62, 66 and 71]

       (B) Criminal Trial—Prosecution—Burden of proof—Prosecution has to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubt—If prosecution fails to discharge its burden—Then inescapable conclusion is to acquit accused. [Para 26]

       (C) Evidence Act, 1872—Section 106—Applicability—Burden of proof—Shifting of—Section 106 can be resorted to by shifting burden on accused to divulge that fact—Which is "in his special knowledge"—And if accused fails to offer any reasonable explanation to satiate judicial inquesitive scrutiny—He is liable to be punished. [Para 30]

       (D) Criminal Trial—Witness—Non-disclosure of name of accused—Without any valid reason at an earliest opportunity—Makes a such witnesses unreliable. [Para 46]

       (E) Evidence Act, 1872—Section 27—Recovery—Admissibility of—What is admissible is so much of disclosure statement by an accused while in police custody—Which leads to recovery not the actual recovery as such—Disclosure statement leading to recovery—Should be proved in actual words of accused. [Para 62]

       (F) Evidence Act, 1872—Section 27—Recovery—Disclosure of statement—Benefit of—Such statements should be taken down by police in actual words of accused—Those actual words transcript has to be proved to gain benefit of Section 27 of Act. [Para 66]

       Result; Appeal Allowed.

       

JUDGMENT

Hon’ble Vinod Prasad, J.—Appellant Dharmendra was tried, convicted and sentenced by Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court No. 1, Ghaziabad by it’s impugned judgment and order dated 25.1.2006 passed in S.T. No. 318 of 2004, connected with S.T.163 of 2004,both appellated as State v. Dharmendra, for offences under Sections 302 I.P.C. and 25 Arms Act relating to Crime Nos. 221 of 2003, P.S. Simbhawali (subsequently,Crime No. 318 of 2004, P.S. Babugarh) and Crime No. 222 of 2003 respectively. For the charge of murder life imprisonment with fine of Rs. 20,000/- and in default thereof to under go six months further imprisonment is the implanted sentence whereas for offence under the Arm’s Act, sentence is one year R.I. with fine of Rs. 1000/-, the default sentence being fifteen days additional imprisonment. Called in questioned in this appeal is the legality and sustainability of aforesaid convictions and sentences by the sole appellant.

2. Genesis of the incident was embedded in a written report, Ext. Ka 22, alleged to have been scribed and lodged by the appellant on 18.11.2003 at 8.30 p.m., according to which, textually, appellant is a resident of Bagh Rana Loni, Moradabad and had an infatuated love affair with one Pooja Pandit, a student of class tenth, resident of behind Naurang Talkies, Ghaziabad. Geeta, appellant’s wife and his one year old infant daughter Rakhi @ Kokal were an impediment in his cupid relationship and hankered nuptial knot with Pooja. To do away with the obstacles, the appellant, in orchestration of his chalked out murderous plan started from his house at 1.30 p.m. on 18.11.2003 in a Maruti Car DL 2 CJ 6302of his uncle for his in-laws house alongwith his wife and daughter and then at 6 p.m, after crossing Kuchaser Chaupala, near Nagar Farm House parked it at a lonely place and then fired at Geeta from his country made pistol but she, however, survived the pistol shot and consequently appellant throttled her and Rakhi @ Kokal to death. Pushing their corpses in the car appellant drove to village Shikhera where he parked it on the pavement. To save the skin from wrath of law appellant shot at his buttock to fabricate a mendacious defence theory, threw the country made pistol in nearby field and then shriekingly rushed to nearby Balaji hotel where he narrated his hokum to the disbelief of persons present there. Thereafter appellant developed remorseful penancial psyche and divulged the real incident, whereupon he was advised to contact the police by the persons present at the spot. Outcome of such an advise was scribbling of text of Ext. ka 22 by the appellant himself, who then came to the police station Simbhawali, at a distance of 5 kms, and lodged it there because he had committed a sinful crime.

3. Clerk Constable Nityanand Sharma, PW 8, registered alleged appellant’s FIR at 8.30 p.m., as crime number 221 of 03, under Section 302 IPC, prepared Chik FIR and GD entry, Ext. Ka-23 and Ext. ka 24, in the presence of S.O. Simbhawali L.R. Verma,PW 10, who immediately commenced the investigation, copied the FIR and G.D., recorded 161 Cr.P.C. statement of Constable Nityanand Sharma and then came to the murder spot , where parental relatives of the deceased Geeta and many villagers were already present. PW 10 dispatched Rakhi @ Kokal for medical treatment to Madhu Nursing Home, Hapur through S.I. R.K. Motala, where she was declared dead. Arranging lights, I.O. got the inquest on the dead body of Geeta conducted through S.I. Ram Swaroop,PW6, who has proved the inquest Memo Ext. Ka 2 and other relevant papers prepared at that time Ext. ka 13 to Ext. ka 16.Inquest memo was also signed by her father Mangu Singh (PW1). Same witness PW 6 had also conducted inquest on the corpse of Rakhi @ Kokal in Madhu Nursing Home and had proved her inquest memo Ext. ka 3 and other relevant papers Ext. Ka 9 to Ext. Ka 12. I.O. had seized ornaments, which were kept in a bag and those which were worn by the deceased Geeta alongwi














































































































































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