IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE HON'BLE SMT. JUSTICE ANURADHA SHUKLA th ON THE 12 OF FEBRUARY, 2024 CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 3218 of 2013 BETWEEN:-

JAVED @ JABID KHAN S/O SHRI JAKIR KHAN, AGED ABOUT 26 YEARS, R/O VANSHSWARUP WARD BARGAWAN, KATNI, POLICE STATION KATNI, DISTRICT KATNI (MADHYA PRADESH)

.....APPELLANT (NONE)

AND THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH THROUGH P.S. MADHAV NAGAR DISTRICT KATNI (MADHYA PRADESH)

.....RESPONDENT (BY MS. VINEETA SHARMA - PANEL LAWYER)

Reserved on : 24.01.2024 Pronounced on: 12.02.2024 This appeal having been heard and reserved for judgment, coming on for pronouncement this day, the court passed the following:

JUDGMENT

In this appeal, the judgment passed on 27.11.2013 by the Sessions Judge, Katni, delivered in Sessions Trial No.30/2013 is challenged whereunder the appellant was convicted for the offence of Section 5 of the Explosive Substances Act and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year with fine of Rs.500/-. He was further sentenced to undergo additional rigorous imprisonment for three months, in case of non-payment of fine.

2. The brief story of prosecution case is that Assistant Sub Inspector Sawaldas Mourya posted at Police Station, Madhav Nagar, Katni, received information on phone that the appellant was threatening people and creating affray at Katay Ghat Road upon which ASI Shri Mourya reached on spot along with Head Constable Anjani Mishra and other members of his team, including two independent witnesses namely Ratanlal Dahiya and Ashok Barman; the appellant was nabbed and searched; a live bomb was recovered from the right pocket of his pant which was kept in a polythene; appellant could not produce the licence for this possession, therefore the recovered bomb was seized and the appellant was arrested. To diffuse the bomb, it was kept under water in a plastic container; FIR at Crime No.515/2012 was registered against the appellant; and the container of bomb was handed over in the custody of Malkhana Prabhari where it was later diffused by the bomb diffusing squad. The remains of bomb were sent for forensic examination from where a report was received confirming that the sent material was a part of a live bomb. Sanction was obtained from District Magistrate and the charge-sheet was filed. After conclusion of trial, the appellant was convicted and sentenced as aforesaid.

3. The grounds raised in this criminal appeal are that the judgment of the learned trial court is contrary to law, facts and circumstances of the case; it was blatantly ignored that the seizure memo and the arrest memo were having the crime number while the FIR was registered later in time; most of the prosecution witnesses were police personnel and in order to show solidarity with their department, they gave untrustworthy evidence; the independent witnesses did not support the prosecution case; there were lots of contradictions, omissions and improvements in the testimony of prosecution witnesses. It is, therefore, prayed that the impugned judgment of conviction and sentence should be set aside and, allowing the appeal, the appellant should be acquitted.

4. State has opposed the appeal claiming that the impugned judgment cannot be interfered with for the reason that it is based on reliable evidence, therefore prayer is made for rejection of appeal.

5. No one appeared on behalf of appellant to argue the matter. The arguments were heard only on behalf of State and the record is perused.

6 . In this case, prosecution has relied upon the testimony of ten witnesses. It can be mentioned here that Shri Sawaldas Mourya (P.W.10) was the person who conducted the search and arrested the appellant on recovery of live bomb and also got the FIR registered against him. Constables Prabhakar Singh (P.W.1), Girish Pandey (P.W.5), Virendra Pratap Singh (P.W.6) and Head Constable Anjani Mishra (P.W.9) were allegedly the members of the police squad, which conducted the proceedings against the appellant. Ratanlal Dahiya (P.