IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

CRIMINAL APPEAL (SJ) No.3508 of 2017

Arising Out of PS. Case No.-160 Year-2015 Thana- MUNGER MUFFASIL District- Munger

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Kapildeo Thakur S/o Late Bhagwan Thakur, R/o Village- Hansu Singh Tola,

P.S.- Bariyarpur (Harinmar O.P.), District- Munger.

... ... Appellant/s

Versus

The State of Bihar

... ... Respondent/s

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Appearance :

For the Appellant/s

:

Mr. Prince Kumar Mishra, Advocate

Mr.Ram Niwas Prasad, Adocate

For the Respondent/s

:

None

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CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A. M. BADAR

CAV JUDGMENT

Date : 20-07-2022

By this appeal, appellant/convicted accused,

Kapildeo Thakur is challenging the Judgment and order dated

15.09.2017 and 20.09.2017 passed by the learned Sessions

Judge, Munger in Sessions Trial No. 228 of 2016 between the

parties, thereby convicting him of the offences punishable under

Sections 25(1-B)a r/w 35, 25(1-AA) r/w 35 and 26 r/w 35 of the

Arms Act, 1959. For the offence punishable under Sections

25(1-B)a r/w 35 of the Arms Act, he is sentenced to suffer

rigorous imprisonment of five years apart from imposition of

fine of Rs.10,000/- and default sentence of simple imprisonment

for three months. For the offence punishable under Sections

25(1-AA) r/w 35 of the Arms Act, the appellant is sentenced to

suffer rigorous imprisonment for ten years apart from

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imposition of fine of Rs. 50,000/- and default sentence of simple

imprisonment for six months. For the offence punishable under

Sections 26 r/w 35 of the Arms Act, he is sentenced to suffer

rigorous imprisonment for seven years apart from imposition of

fine of Rs.10,000/- and default sentence of simple imprisonment

for three months. Substantive sentences are directed to run

concurrently by the learned trial court. For the sake of

convenience, the appellant shall be referred to in his original

capacity as “an accused”.

2. Facts leading to the prosecution of the accused

projected from the police report can be summarized thus:-

A. P.W. 1, Abhinav Kumar Dubey who happens to

be the Station House Officer of the Muffasil Police Station,

Munger on 11.08.2015 had received a secret information that

illicit trade of the weapons shall be happening at the site of

under construction house of Bechan Singh son of Shivdhari

Singh situated at the western side of the Middle School near an

area named Gaira Pahar. He took sanha entry of the information

so received and along with his staff comprising of P.W. 6

Raghubans Prasad Singh Police Inspector, P.W. 3 Mahendra

Rajak Head Constable and others, proceeded to village Gaira

Pahar. When the police party reached at the under construction

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house of Bechan Singh situated near the Middle School, two

persons attempted to flee away from that spot. One person

managed to escape whereas another one who was holding a

plastic bag in his hand came to be apprehended by the police

party. Upon being asked, the said person disclosed his name as

Kapildeo Thakur, i.e., the present appellant/accused.

B. P.W. 1 Abhinav Kumar Dubey, Police Station

Officer searched for independent witness in order to effect the

search and seizure from the accused. However the independent

witnesses were not available. As such members of the raiding

team namely P.W. 3 Mahendra Rajak Head Constable and one

another police personnel named Dhananjay Kumar were asked

to act as Punch witnesses. Thereafter search of the plastic bag

held by the accused came to be conducted. It was found to be

containing one 7.65 mm pistol with its additional magazine and

two country made firearms. By preparing seizure memo, those

three firearms and one magazine came to be seized and on the

basis of the First Infor