- (1.) All these appeals were taken up together as they arose out of a single judgment dated 12-3-1980 recorded by the IInd Additional Sessions Judge, Mathura, in S.T. No. 409 of 1976 tried along with Sessions Trial Nos. 63 of 1979, 211 of 1979, 409A of 1976 and 409-B of 1976. Twelve persons stood charged in the trial which arose out of case Crimes No. 293 of 1976 and 400 of 1976, relating to police station Virendavan, district Mathura, for different offences under Sections 396 and 412, I.P.C. Eight accused persons stood acquitted while four were found guilty. Pitambar was convicted for an offence under Section 412, I.P.C. and was sentenced to R.I. for three years. Gyasi was also convicted under Section 412, I.P.C. read with Section 25 of the Arms Act and was sentenced to R.I. for four years under Section 412 and for one year under Section 25 of the Arms Act. The sentences were to run concurrently. Hokar and Ram Saroop were convicted under Section 396, I.P.C. and each of them was sentenced to R.I. for seven years. Each individual accused filed a separate appeal, as indicated above, challenging their convictions and sentences. The State has also come up in appeal against the sentence imposed on Hokar and Ram Saroop. In the present bunch of appeals, therefore, all the questions concerning propriety of conviction and extent of sentence were open for decision.
(2.) In the instant case the incident in question took place at the night between 31st July and 1st August, 1976, at about 3.00. The report to Virendavan police station was made at 6.30 A.M. on 1-8-76. The place of occurrence was in village Nagla Dokri said to be 9 miles south from the police station. The F. I.R. was lodged on a very cryptic information by one Jawahar Singh and it simply stated that on the previous night at 3.00 there had been a dacoity in the house of Kacheru Singh Jat and in that dacoity Naval Singh son of Kacheru Singh was done to death. It was further indicated that a double barrel gun of the brother of Kacheru Singh was also looted away by the dacoits. Upon this F.I.R. police recorded case Crime No. 293 at Virendavan police station under Section 396, I.P.C. and went to the spot. Subsequently, a list was submitted to the Investigating Officer by Mangi Lal, brother of Kacheru Singh, indicating the materials that were taken away by the dacoits. The list indicated, amongst other, a double barrel gun bearing No. 18494 along with 32 pieces of cartridges. The list also included silver lachcha (ankle ornament), Out of the long list these two items have been indicated here as the present convicts Pitambar and Gyasi have been found guilty for allegedly having been in possession of these materials. It was the case of the prosecution that certain pieces of silver lachchas were recovered from Pitambar and the same were identified subsequently as property stolen in the dacoity. It was stated further that the concerned gun was sbsequently re-covered from Gyasi and it bore the same number as indicated in the list. For Gyasi there was no valid license for holding a fire arm and as such, in addition to the charge under Section 412, I.P.C. he was further charged for an offence under Section 25 of the Arms Act.
(3.) For Ram Saroop and Hokar it was the prosecution case that after their arrest they were put in test identification parade wherein seven witnesses had identified Ram Saroop as a dacoit participating in the dacoity and five persons had identified Hokar attributing a similar role to him. For Ram Saroop the date of arrest was 13-9-76 and the date of alleged identification in test identification parade was 31-10-76 while the dacoity was committed at the night between 31st July and 1st August, 1976. For Hokar the date of arrest was 15-10-76 and the test identification pa- rade was held on the same date with Ram Saroop i.e. on 31-10-1976.;