SUKHDEV SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was tried for committing the offence under Section 379/411 IPC. Vide judgment and order dated 8.4.2009, learned Judicial Magistrate, Ist Class, Malerkotla, held the petitioner guilty under Section 379 IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two years and to pay a fine of Rs.1000/- and, in default of payment of the fine, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one month.

(2.) Aggrieved there-against, the petitioner filed an appeal before the learned Sessions Judge, Sangrur. Vide judgment dated 18.07.2009, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sangrur, while upholding the finding of guilt, partly allowed the appeal qua sentence and reduced the same from two years to that of one year.

(3.) The criminal prosecution against the petitioner was launched on the basis of the FIR recorded on the statement made by complainant Devinder Kumar son of Sohan Lal, to the effect that he had been running a petrol pump in the name of style of Sohan Lal and Brothers at village Chaunda; that his uncle Satish Kumar was having one Maruti Car bearing Registration No. PB-48/0152 Model 1995; that a day before 10.11.2002, he had parked the said Maruti Car on the said petrol pump and had gone to his house on his motorcycle; that on that day, at about 10.30 a.m., on reaching his petrol pump, he found that the said Maruti Car had been stolen by some unknown person on the intervening night of 9.11.2002 and 10.11.2002 and that he searched for the car, but no clue thereof was found.